Learning the lexicon: was: Re: Parallelism

On Wed, 16 Jun 1999, Charles wrote:

> > As for adults: the late Benedict (of Austronesian and Sino-Tibetan fame)
> > could memorize a wordlist with a single scan, while still playing the
> > psycho-therapist to a patient. George van Driem doesn't have to
> > do more than hear or read a word once. I need about a week for a word
> > to sink in, with daily repetition, but I can easily do a few hundred
> > in a week simultaneously. Phrases are easier, though!
>
> Are these cognate words, or are you linguists really extraterrestrials?
> I suppose it is possible I am just lazy ...
>
Speaking for myself, I can do only one language at a time in that rate,
maybe two. Trying to do three or more makes the wheels clog up. It's just
a matter of keeping those old language-acquisition muscles in shape. And,
of course, learning any language becomes a lot easier after the first
half dozen...

And, as recently has been put forward, extraterrestrials seldom know
more than two languages: basic English and their world's common
speech.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt