Re: LANGUAGE LAWS

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> charles wrote:
> > Grammar increases until it becomes a burden.
> > (Same for idiomatic usage.)
>
> What do you mean by that?
Starting from a pidginized state, more and more things
tend to get grammaticalized. Like tense/aspect/mood.
This is more "efficient" and yet more complex.
Like optimizations in programming, sortof.

> > Time increases irregularities (hoary tradition).
>
> Actually, time tends to *decrease* irregularities.
Yes and no. Over time, sound changes result in
fossilized high frequency words that are irregular
with respect to the new order. The words for "being"
and "having" in most IE languages, for example.

But for all trends there are counter-trends.