LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM (Newspeak)

[Peter_Constable at sil.org]

> A more likely case of usage would be <span lang="en">uneasy</span> vs.
<span
> lang="x-en-newspeak">uneasy</span>. The latter doesn't mean "anxious" or
> "nervous", but simply "difficult". Such tagging would potentially clarify
> e.g. <URL:http://www.maison-otaku.net/~mikado/write/orig/2084.txt>.

Shades of Lewis Carol.

Just because some author plays with the common use of a language does not
mean that we need to tag a distinct linguistic variety. We could have an
endlist list of tags for English varieties where the tags serve no
particularly useful purpose other than to mark expressions in a single text
that were used by the author in an unconventional manner.

In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is a character who
pronounces the word spelled k-i-l-l-e-d as "revoked", and assigns to
"revoked" the sense of 'killed'. There is a play on words here, involving
metaphor and extension of semantic ranges. Do we want to create tags for
metaphors, puns, etc.?

Such things do not constitute distinct language varieties in need of tags.

If there is a *body* of literature out there in a distinct variety
recognised and used by a defineable community of users, then perhaps a tag
for something like "newspeak" could be warrented, but I really think a good
case needs to be made before it be considered.



- Peter


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Peter Constable

Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485