Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC830713); site vu44.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!mcvax!vu44!jack From: jack@vu44.UUCP (Jack Jansen) Newsgroups: net.ai,net.nlang Subject: Re: natural language deficiencies? Message-ID: <453@vu44.UUCP> Date: Tue, 30-Oct-84 15:55:17 EST Article-I.D.: vu44.453 Posted: Tue Oct 30 15:55:17 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 2-Nov-84 04:39:08 EST References: <12582@sri-arpa.UUCP> <12300003@uicsl.UUCP> <194@oliveb.UUCP> <619@gloria.UUCP> <801@aplvax.UUCP> <334@ptsfa.UUCP> Organization: The Retarded Programmers Home, VU, Amsterdam Lines: 30 I think that there are two issues mixed up at the moment, being 1. Some languages have a single word-construction for an idea that needs several words in some other language. 2. Some languages *CAN NOT* be used to express certain ideas. An example of the first is Dick's 'leraresje' who has to be called 'little female teacher' in English. I don't think this is really a deficiency, because it is possible to communicate the idea, even if you need more words for it. 'Eisenbahnknotenpunkthinundherschieber' has to be written as 'An official working for a railway company who, occasionally, moves a big handle in one or the other direction, to make sure that trains get to their destination'. This is cumbersome, but it is still possible to tell an Englishman that my uncle is an Eisenbablahblahblah. On the other hand, the Aborigines have no construction for 'what if', which is much more serious. This really is a language deficiency, since it will take *lots* of trouble to communicate this idea. What I would like to know is whether anyone knows of a language that contains constructions like this that can not be expressed in English. Of course, it will be very difficult to communicate the idea of this construction to us, but still .... Jack Jansen, {seismo|philabs|decvax}!mcvax!vu44!jack or ...!vu44!htsa!jack "Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure" Oscar Wilde, 1894. "Most unix(tm) programmers are great masters of style" Jack Jansen, 1984.