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Opacity: Difference between revisions
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== Lexical opacity == | == Lexical opacity == | ||
In some [[loglang]]s, compound words are "transparent", meaning you can analyze their parts. For example, in Loglan, ''trigru'' is necessarily a compound of ''tri'' (tree) + ''gru'' (group). A listener who doesn't know this word can still deduce that it refers to groups | In some [[loglang]]s, compound words are "transparent", meaning you can analyze their parts. For example, in Loglan, ''trigru'' is necessarily a compound of ''tri'' (tree) + ''gru'' (group). A listener who doesn't know this word can still deduce that it refers to tree-groups in some sense. (The word means "forest".) | ||
Toaq does not have this property: its compounds are '''opaque'''. This means that even though {{t|muaome}} is ''etymologically'' formed as {{t|muao}} plus {{t|me}} (which may be a useful mnemonic), there is no way to infer the meaning or structure of an unfamiliar word in general, or to even tell that it ''is'' a compound. | Toaq does not have this property: its compounds are '''opaque'''. This means that even though {{t|muaome}} is ''etymologically'' formed as {{t|muao}} plus {{t|me}} (which may be a useful mnemonic), there is no way to infer the meaning or structure of an unfamiliar word in general, or to even tell that it ''is'' a compound. | ||
This gives wordsmiths much more freedom: we can freely make new multi-syllable [[root]]s, or "exocentric compounds" like {{t|tıqshoaı}} (which is not a kind of {{t|shoaı}}). | This gives wordsmiths much more freedom: we can freely make new multi-syllable [[root]]s, or "exocentric compounds" like {{t|tıqshoaı}} (which is not a kind of {{t|shoaı}}). | ||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||