Re: USAGE: Language revival

Ed Heil wrote:

> Because, neurologically, lookup is always more efficient than
> computation, and there are no known storage space constraints on human
> memory (your hard drive never "fills up" and it doesn't get harder to
> recall things as you learn more things), forms will always be recalled
> from memory rather than computed formulaically, if that is possible.
I said that was contrary to the linguistic evidence before, and I
say so now.  If it were true, we would have retained "dwerrows" as the
plural of "dwarf" (Tolkien's example), but we have created the analogical
plurals "dwarfs" and "dwarves" instead.  If we could memorize everything,
every language would be a morphological nightmare: every noun and verb
irregular.

--

John Cowan      http://www.reutershealth.com            jcowan@reutershealth.com
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! / Schliess eurer Aug vor heiliger Schau
Den er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
                -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)