At 15:46 18/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>> Yes, at present, they just don't exist. That doesn't mean that=
they
>> can't exist, or that they never existed (maybe a language now extinct
>> without any descendor had a split-nominative like Sally's one). Who=
knows?
>> There are only 5000 languages all over the world, and certainly millions
>> (perhaps an infinity) of systems that could be languages. So it's normal=
for
>> me to think that everything is possible.
>
>Okay, granted some unattested systems quite possibly existed somewhere,
>but not all. I seriously doubt that a center-embedding system could
>exist, the human brain simply can't handle it. I'm confident that there
>*are* systems that simply can't exist in human languages. Perhaps some
>that we think are impossible are actually possible, but I don't think
>that every unattested system is possible. The human brain can only
>process certain types of systems.
>
What if our brain evolves? (just kidding)
>--
>"It has occured to me more than once that holy boredom is good and
>sufficient reason for the invention of free will." - "Lord Leto II"
>(Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert)
>
http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files/
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>
>