Re: How to minimize "words" (was "Re: isolating conlangs")

Stevo wrote:
<<
Characters are not the same as words in Chinese (although this was
much more
the case in Ancient Chinese).
Modern Mandarin uses characters as parts of words, although many simple,
common words are written with one character.
Bottom line:  "character" does not equal "word".
 >>

The whole point was that "character" doesn't equal the Western
notion of "word"--right.  The next question, then, is whether or
not there exists a separate notion of "word", and, if it does, is it
as important as our poorly defined notion of "word", or is the
notion of the "character" more important?

-David
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"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

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