Re: Language superiority, improvement, etc.

On Thu, 15 Oct 1998, Matt Pearson wrote:

> a particular language at a particular time just seems a little extreme to
> me.
Standard disclaimer - IANAL (In this case this means: I am not a linguist)

"just seems a little extreme"... ummm...

I will say that it certainly communicates an idea to me, and hopefully it
is the intended one; hopefully Matt won't take it as nitpicking, as it is
not intended that way. :)

I find little phrases like this to be a wonderful part of the only
language I speak or write (speaking of which, what's a good second natlang
to learn to break me of my assumptions that the "English way" is the only
way?) It's hardly efficient (one could always argue that the word "g" in
the conlang X means "just seems a little extreme"... that's certainly a
more efficient way of expressing that idea), and certainly not terribly
transparent (in that I suspect that a partially fluent listener might have
a hard time with the contrast), but I still like it, yes I do.

It reminds me of something a native German speaker pointed out to me a
number of years ago...

"That beach is very empty" implies the presence of more people on the
beach than "That beach is empty".

If I can make a conlang that has little surprises like that, I'll be a
happy camper indeed.

-Tundra