Sounds very similar to Guy Steel's "Growing a Language" talk. His constraint was to not use any word greater than one syllable unless it is defined by either one-syllable words, or other words that had been previously defined.

That really is a great talk! It's on Youtube too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0

Wow. I was sure this was inspired by George Boolos' great "Godel's Second Incompleteness Theorem Explained in Words of One Syllable".

http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Math/Milnikel/boolos-godel.pdf

I wonder if Hofstadter was inspired by Boolos?

Actually, Hofstadter states that he was inspired by a magazine contest.