Construction of languages as the interlinguistic problem

Abstract

Abstract This study attempts to sketch the vast problem of the construction of languages or construction within languages. So far, linguists have paid little attention to these issues, as under the influence of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, stressed especially by A. Schleicher based on Darwinism, they were considered understood and untouchable. Only later, especially under the influence of B. de Courtenay, H. Schuchardt and O. Jespersen, language started to be understood as a sociopsychological tool that allows conscious influence on its structure and evolution. After dealing with the topic of the attributes of language according to a new classification, the author then discusses the object of interlinguistics, which is presented according to the latest concept of the Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik (GIL). The following three overviews of important interlinguistics works with an emphasis on the construction of languages begin with D. Blanke’s book Internationale Plansprachen, which offers the reader the most extensive work on this topic until now, with an extraordinarily rich bibliography. Then there is a rather detailed review of A. Piperski’s book focuses on the construction of languages, and the author ends his extensive study with a short analysis of Y. Wahlgren’s work on fantasy languages, for which the moment of construction plays an essential role.