3

Imagine a new computer programming language whose keywords and all other syntax were in lojban (or equivalent language - will explain in a bit). Allowing lojban to be a "natural" language itself, would the resulting programmes appear to be natural language?

This is my reasoning:

Since all lojban can be expressed in predicate logic (I believe), and all computer programmes can be expressed in predicate logic. Then there could be an isomorphism between lojban and computer programs. So every computer programme could be expressed in lojban, which to a native speaker would appear natural.

23
  • 4
    Every computer program can be expressed in any human language (natural or constructed). The problem is the other direction - interpreting human language algorithmically (because of ambiguity ).
    – Atamiri
    Jan 2, 2014 at 20:03
  • 4
    The famous book "Aṣṭādhyāyī" by the great Indian grammarian Pāṇini (5th-4th century BC), which is a grammar of Sanskrit, is actually a pogram for human brain, with data arrays, procedures and functions, arranged in code lines and written in a programming language specially devised by Pāṇini for this purpose. To load the program into the human memory, one has to memorise about 10,000 lines of code, in verses. When the program is being executed by a human brain, the person just speaks Sanskrit, that's the purpose of it.
    – Yellow Sky
    Jan 2, 2014 at 21:17
  • 2
    This question appears to be off-topic because it is a hypothetical question about computer programming languages and a constructed language with no objective answer. Quora welcomes questions with no "one right answer" though, so maybe try it there. Jan 3, 2014 at 9:53
  • 2
    This question does not appear to be off-topic (at least not to my mind) because it deals with linguistic modelling, constructed languages and computer linguistics.
    – Manjusri
    Jan 3, 2014 at 11:55
  • 2
    @Manjusri: Even if you disagree about the scope, that's only one problem. The other being that it's subjective, doesn't have "one right answer", will only attract opinion and debate etc. Jan 3, 2014 at 13:27

1 Answer 1

5

A few corrections: lojban, though a human language, is not a natural language; it is a conlang. AFAIK, there are no native speakers of lojban: that would require teaching lojban as one of the primary languages to a very young child.

Lojban is syntactically unambiguous, and only mostly unambiguous semantically. If there were a lojban programming language, this should not matter because one would avoid writing semantically ambiguous forms (like metaphors). This question has come up on various forums for lojban, Prolog, Haskell, etc., The consensus on those forums seems to be that it is possible, but no one has done it yet. Some people (e.g. 1, e.g. 2) have attempted to implement such a thing, but AFAIK, for very limited domains.

1

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.