Re: Comparison of philosophical languages

Andrew Nowicki  <andrew@...> 2003.01.20. 21:14:37 +1h-kor írta:

> I believe that any language is merely a tool that
> should be discarded when a better tool is found.
> Any tool can be compared to other tools. I would
> like to know what features of a general purpose
> spoken language are desirable.
We don't think like that. I - and I'm sure most people around there -
believes that every language is better than another, though
one is more beautiful, one is compact or progressive.
Language is not just a tool of communication but the
source of human thinking and intelligence. Not many
people can learn a foreign language better than its native lang.
Did not you reckoginzed that when you speak a foreign language
you have o think in that lang unless you will be very slow to
understand and answer.

> Some programming languages are better than other
> programming languages. Some spoken languages are
> better than other spoken languages. Some systems
> of measures are better than other systems of
> measures. If we had been talking about systems of
> measures I would certainly say that the metric
> system is superb to other systems. The flamers
> in this thread imply that we cannot compare
> languages. Just because *they* cannot compare
> languages does not mean that languages cannot
> be compared.
Languages can be compared regaring to their differences but
none can say it is better than other - language is fluent and changes,
which was powerful and compact in one century may lose its power
in the next one.

> Some spoken languages, for example Japanese,
> resemble Ygyde and Ro in a sense that they build
> compound words from short roots. Even the English
> language has some of this ability: police-man,
> fire-man, work-man, crafts-man, journey-man,
> milk-man, gentle-man, noble-man, water-man, air-man,
> horse-man, herds-man, boat-man, cave-man, sky-man,
> country-man, woods-man, trades-man, yeo-man,
> weather-man, gun-man, clergy-man, house-man...
> Is it difficult to tell these words apart?
That is also shown in many other languages, both constructed and
natural ones  - for example Hungarian and Long Wer, the ones
I know a "bit" :)

> On the other hand the English language has some
> nasty near homonyms: She sells sea-shells. I had
> a hot hat on my head.
> Another flaw of the English language is that a
> novice listening to a fast speech cannot tell
> where one word ends and another word begins.
What's the matter? Human brain is capable to wonderful
things. It even can reckognize words form a spaceless
mouthful.


-- Mau