Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cybvax0.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh
From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Spelling Reform
Message-ID: <214@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Nov-84 10:35:36 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.214
Posted: Wed Nov  7 10:35:36 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Nov-84 12:56:15 EST
References: <179@scc.UUCP> <2696@ncsu.UUCP> <4483@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 36

[Mike Huybensz]
> >> Learning grammar and spelling are quite different tasks, that take
> >> place in different ways.  It is inappropriate to compare the two in
> >> your argument.

[Ken Perlow] 
> Not at all.  The tasks are indeed different, but the learning of both
> comes through practice.  Kids everywhere get to practice the grammars
> of their native tongues by speaking them.  But spelling practice
> requires a lot of both reading and writing.

I won't let you conceal your ignorance under an umbrella generalization such
as "practice".  That's like comparing learning to run marathons and learning
to ride as a passenger under the generalization "travelling".  An immense
amount of research has been done on how grammars are learned by humans.
Much of that learning takes place before a word is spoken.  Children START
speaking with grammar.  The mechanisms involved in learning grammar seem
to be quite different that the memorization used for learning spelling.

> Hey, it's hard enough to read Shakespeare as it
> is, what with all those Elizabethan in-jokes, but it's clear at least
> what the words themselves are.  Get a new generation addicted to
> "nu-spel" and you can kiss literature goodbye.

Reading alternative spellings is actually rather simple.  The rules for
sounding out words tend to be much less complex than the information required
to represent their spellings.  I've not had difficulty with my few exposures
to antique English spellings or fanciful spelling systems as in "Meihem in ce
Klasrum".  Nor is respelling literature going to be a significantly difficult
task with computer dictionaries and machine readers available.  They can remove
the drudgery from the task, allowing humans to tend to the places where the
program can't make distinctions, and providing the benefit of making literature
available for further processing.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh