Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site mcvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!wjh12!harvard!seismo!mcvax!steven From: steven@mcvax.UUCP (Steven Pemberton) Newsgroups: net.ai,net.nlang Subject: Re: natural language deficiencies? Message-ID: <6124@mcvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 26-Oct-84 13:56:48 EST Article-I.D.: mcvax.6124 Posted: Fri Oct 26 13:56:48 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 28-Oct-84 07:12:15 EST References: <12582@sri-arpa.UUCP> <12300003@uicsl.UUCP> <194@oliveb.UUCP> <619@gloria.UUCP> <801@aplvax.UUCP> <367@tjalk.UUCP> Reply-To: steven@mcvax.UUCP (Steven Pemberton) Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 13 Xref: mcvax net.ai:1459 net.nlang:95 > There is no (reasonable) way to render Dutch: leraresje (little female > teacher) into English. There is no way, reasonable or not, to render Dutch 'gezellig' into English. This is also SURELY a language deficiency. (Since there's no way to render the word into English, I'm afraid I can't explain to non-Dutch speakers what it means, except to say that it's an adjective describing social situations, and is desirable.) ((For Dutch readers: I find the same problems with 'eng', though it's not so widely discussed as gezellig. But perhaps discussion on that should be restricted to nlnet distribution.))