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From: fred@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Forwarded message from UCLA (It's * to me.)
Message-ID: <169@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Jun-83 18:26:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.169
Posted: Wed Jun 15 18:26:26 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Jun-83 14:07:17 EDT
References: <58@trwspp.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 10

A few years back I saw a semi-serious paper on just this subject written
by some folks at MIT. They decided to construct a partial ordering of
natural languages by their relative complexity by defining the language
B to be more complex than the language A if there exists in common
usage in A the phrase ``It's B to me.'', or something equivalent.
The result? There were no cycles. Chinese came out on top as the most
complex. According to the paper Chinese uses the phrase ``It's heavenly
script to me.''

This is all from memory. I'll see if I can track down a copy of the paper.