This is why I advocate the adoption of logical language(s). Those in the tradition of Loglan, for example, share vocabularies and grammars designed such that context can be made irrelevant given appropriate sentence construction (some other ambiguity reducing features as well), and tools to easily make temporary (ie: until end of conversation) extensions to their vocabularies where the base is insufficient while generally behaving like natural language.
Let's discuss partial solutions.
Suppose you and random other English speakers were abducted by aliens and
accelerating out of the solar system on their ship. You strongly suspect you
will never be able to go back, and get to work on building a new society.
You are the smartest person in the group and convince everyone that language is
important. They agree to reform the language, but aren't capable of constructing
or learning a new one, and aren't interested in teaching their children one.
What simple reforms might be a good idea?
I can suggest some:
It will no longer be correct to say that something is (a color or similar
property). One must say it "seems" a color, as well as to whom. Not "Snow is
white", rather, "Snow seems white to me".
"Rationalize" will be replaced by a word with a different root.
1[anonymous]12y
And yet as far as I'm aware, it's impossible to infer the place structure or
semantics of a predicate. This is a massive problem in Lojban (who knows or
cares if it's in Loglan -- the language is kept as a trade secret, after all).
E.g., I could print pamphlets defining 'klama' as standard 'se klama' and it
would take a while for anyone to notice the difference.
This is why I advocate the adoption of logical language(s). Those in the tradition of Loglan, for example, share vocabularies and grammars designed such that context can be made irrelevant given appropriate sentence construction (some other ambiguity reducing features as well), and tools to easily make temporary (ie: until end of conversation) extensions to their vocabularies where the base is insufficient while generally behaving like natural language.