Re: Defining "Language"

In a message dated 7/18/2007 12:33:38 PM Central Daylight Time,
dedalvs@GMAIL.COM writes:


> The definition I've heard is as follows:
>
> A system of communication used by a community that is creative and
> recursive.
>
> This serves fairly well for distinguishing natural human languages
> from animal communication systems.  Two problems, though, are
> (1) language can exist without a community (that would be conlangs);
> and (2) if that whole Piraha business is accurate, I suppose language
> doesn't have to be recursive.
If we define language as recursive, then Piraha is perhaps not a language.

stevo   </HTML>