Subject: [iucg] Intersem: 470 years of experimentation

From: jefsey <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:30:31 +0200

http://iucg.org/wiki/French:_470_years_of_experience_for_the_Intersem

French: 470 years of experience for the Intersem

It was 470 years ago today that King Francois the First signed the 
ordnance of Villers-Cotterets. This ordnance removed the French 
judiciary system from any Church jurisdiction and ended the use of 
Latin in legal public decisions. This was the birth of the French 
modern language, through its assignment as the language of French law 
in a lingually diversified Kingdom.

The difference

This is the basic difference between French and every other language. 
In every language there is a common referent in the background that 
is never stated, but is constantly present. In French, as a legal 
language, this referent comes with an impressive "built-in" 
metalanguage in some kind of intelligent (as in inter-legere, 
inter-linked) overlay that is shaped by the influence of the Law, 
methodically structuring the grammar as well as rules, usages, social 
agreements, common thinking, knowledge, culture and cultural values 
that every other human community usually builds from a rough consensus.

A progressive exploration

Various authors (Du Bellay, Descartes, and Pascal actually tested 
whether it was possible to use the language of the Law for poetry, 
science, philosophy, etc.). This also clearly explains the raison 
d'etre of the French Academy, which is not actually to protect the 
language, but rather to protect the citizens by protecting the 
clarity of the law as described by a language, which must be kept 
equal, logical, and reasonably exciting for everyone, from generation 
to generation. This is the job of academicians who, for that reason, 
have been dubbed as "Immortals" (719 to this date), because the Law 
has to be immortal, as the rules of Justice are carved in the stone, 
and in this way are also carved in the national language. Revolution 
gave to the Law the care of the language of the Law, but Napoleon 
returned it to the expertise of the academicians and made them 
stabilize and document it. This was more efficient, but less 
democratic: the first SSDO [specialised standard documentation organisation].

Intrinsic equality

This protection of the people by the defense of the languages of the 
Law of the people is the very basis of a "people centric" society, 
such as the one found in the unanimous declaration at the World 
Summit on the Information Society, which described the want for the 
Internet to support such. This is the motivation for the france@large 
team that is participating in the IETF linguistic WGs; an equal for 
all linguistic support of equal languages.

Technical contribution

Technically, the interest in this experiment results from the fact 
that it worked. This meant that one can introduce an active referent 
system as a part of the more passive grammatical system. If one 
considers that the common referent of a relational space makes the 
semantics of its language, and that its various contexts make its 
pragmatics diversity, this would mean that Francois the First was 
able to port a large and key pragmatic referent into the language 
semantic references (grammar, syntax, and vocabulary).

We know his way rather well: the new references were well structured 
(Legal system). We do not know if other approaches would have worked, 
since that respective case was unique. However, we also know that 
this trains French speakers in their "metaductive" form of thinking, 
by first understanding how the world is and then "boringly" striving 
to make it "French" i.e. equal, logical, and reasonably exciting for everyone.

One could, in some way (which Kant implied), oppose this with the 
Descartes' Method 4th rule: limited human methodical considerations 
come second after a global vision (this is precisely what we are 
trying to address via research [such as "Complex" or "Intelligent" 
thinking and "epistemology" (in the French school meaning)] towards a 
networked consideration of reality).

An inspiration for innovation

This introduction of the legal language in the language itself, with 
all its logical implications and constraints, is very similar to the 
problem that we are facing, which is to make natural languages and 
mecalanguages [natural language support by machines] (the first issue 
being IDNA) converge. Metaductive thinking is what registries and 
metadata networks permit (JTC1/WG2/SC32, ISO 11179): it is the most 
probable support of mecalanguages.

However, it took French a few centuries; we do not have that kind of 
time - but we do have French as an experimental basis for the job at 
hand: the Intersem, the multilingual and semantic Internet.