⋋P[P(John)] Seeks a Unicorn

Author:

Martin, Jannah

Area of Honors:

Communication Arts and Sciences (Berks/Lehigh)

Degree:

Bachelor of Humanities

Document Type:

Thesis

Thesis Supervisors:

Cheryl L Nicholas, Thesis Supervisor
Sandy Feinstein, Thesis Honors Advisor

Keywords:

Semantics
Language

Abstract:

Natural language, i.e. language which has evolved naturally for the use of day-to-day communication, has been the subject of analysis by philosophers, mathematicians, and logicians, each using the structure and understood meaning of sentences to either represent or develop principles in their respective fields. As linguistics as an area of study began including theories from interdisciplinary analyses, new types of languages began to emerge as a means of better expressing ideas which natural language was not built to communicate. These languages, broadly called conlangs (constructed languages), span from the formal languages of logic and philosophy to the creative conlangs of fictional worlds and people groups. Through the use of novel conlangs, language structure, semantics, and purpose can all be studied as they emerge in new linguistic contexts. Katfa’fulan’zhosa (KFZ) is a conlang which, as revealed through the process of translation to and from Montague grammar (PTQ), models propositional logic and mathematic operators in phrase construction.