Re: LANGUAGE LAWS

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Tommie Powell wrote:
> > And I don't think
> > we should ignore them, when the only natural languages that resemble computer
> > programming languages are languages of Stone Age people.
>
> I'm having a hard time believing this.  Could you point me to the
> research that leads to your characterizing these languages as resembling
> computer programming languages?  For instance, what do you mean by "the
> foundation of each sort of expression is a unique string of syllables,
> and the expression is completed by inserting words before and/or after
> each of those syllables"?
>
Sure, Nik.  Such languages are very easy to spot: Just look for an example of how a
language actually says something -- anything -- and if that expression is presented
as a one-word sentence, you're almost certainly looking at what I call a Stone Age
language.

I found an example on the Internet today, at
http://www.mcn.net/~wleman/cheyenne.htm

The example is a Cheyenne "word" 18 syllables long, and means "I truly do not
pronounce Cheyenne well."  The reason it's a single "word" is that you cannot break
its "morphenes" apart and rearrange them to express that thought in any other way.

I don't know the Cheyenne language, but, from my general knowledge of Stone Age
languages, I can make an educated guess of how that "word" is constructed.  First,
I'll list what that website identifies as "morphenes", in the order they appear in
that "word":

na=I, ohke=regularly, saa=not (first half), oneseome=truly, peheve=good/well,
tsehest=Cheyenne, o'ane=pronounce, he=not (last half).

The first half and last half of "not" ("saa" and "he") are almost certainly in the
string of syllables that dictate the type of expression, and the "o" in "o'ane"
probably completes that string, so the string is probably "__saa__o__he".  Then the
morphenes which are required for filling in the blanks are the actor (I) in the
first blank, the language (Cheyenne) in the second blank, and the remainder of the
o-type morphene (pronounce) in the third blank.  Then the speaker has the option of
inserting the other morphenes where he/she did.

-- Tommie