1922] on Auxiliary International Languages 543 



affixes. His " Etude sur la Derivation " is an extremely interesting 

 application of logic to the science of synthetic linguistics. 

 Here are some examples as applied to Ido : — 



Ido Word Derivation. 



Stem 

 Kron 



Bel 

 Joy 



These examples illustrate the following principles : — 



1. There must exist a unique and reciprocal correspondence 

 between the ideas and the word elements which express them. 



2. Every word element represents an elementary idea, which is 

 always the same, so that a combination of elements has a meaning 

 determined by the combination of the corresponding ideas. 



3. Every derivative must be reversible — that is to say, if one passes 

 from one word to another of the same family in virtue of a certain 

 rule, one must be able to pass inversely from the second to the first 

 in virtue of a rule which is exactly the inverse of the preceding 

 (principle of reversibility). 



It will be seen that these principles are simply the rules of mathe- 

 matical logic as applied to the operations of word-derivation. But 

 only time can show whether the strict principles of symbolic logic 

 will appeal to the mind of a child or to that of a comparatively 

 nn learned person. Their value has been contested by De Saussure. 

 Certainly neither Esperanto nor any living national language conforms 

 strictly, or even approximately, to such mathematical precision and 

 regularity. Languages have grown up in the rough and tumble of 

 daily life, and are consequently capricious and irregular. That is 

 of course no reason why a synthetic auxiliary language should pur- 

 posely be made illogical or irregular. But we must be careful 

 to remember that the learning of a language is a question of the 

 psychology of the child mind. There may be a playful little imp 

 here that is not impressed by the mathematical precision of polished 

 logicians. Perhaps we must not get too far away from " did urns " 

 and " tootsy-wootsy." 



Ido, like Esperanto, has had a very great success, and has been 

 very thoroughly developed. Many general and technical dictionaries 



Yol. XXIII. (No. 116) 2 q 



