Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!fred 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.