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#166 | |
MIA ... but returning som
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This "counting of words" is pretty much useless ... languages are simply different ![]() --might it be "inflection" respectively fusional language? Yes, I believe this is the (english) name .. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusional_language ) Last edited by tirsales; 04-12-2009 at 04:21 PM. |
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#167 | |
Dry fruit
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#168 |
curmudgeon
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In English, many or most of the words we grabbed from scholarly Latin and Greek remain fusional. Antidisestablishmentarianism for one notorious example. These would be the ologies and isms and so on.
English -- we've got it all! (sort of ![]() Xenophon |
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#169 |
MIA ... but returning som
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You got it all - somehow .. but not really
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#170 | |
WWHALD
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#171 | ||
Illiterate
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#172 | |
eBook Enthusiast
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#173 | |
eBook Enthusiast
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What interests me is the "descriptive" vs. "prescriptive" approach to language adopted by different countries. The OED is the classic example of a "descriptive" dictionary - it bases its word definitions on quotations taken from published English - books, newspapers, etc, and uses those quotations to illustrate how the different meanings of a word have changed over the years. The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, on the other hand, is the classic example of a "prescriptive" dictionary - one which describes not how a language actually is used, but how it should be used. The "Duden" fulfils the same purpose in Germany (it was adopted as the "official" standard for German spelling in 1902). There is, however, no such "prescriptive" dictionary of English, and there never has been. I find it interesting that some countries have prescribed how their languages should be used, and some have not. There's absolutely no criticism inherent in saying that, let me hasten to add! |
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#174 | |
zeldinha zippy zeldissima
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harry, you speak as if there were only ONE dictionary of the french language, by the Académie Française, but in fact there are many. maybe you have never heard of the Petit Robert, whose editorial director is Alain Rey, a brilliant linguist and lexicographer. Here is a very interesting interview with him. a relevant citation which you might want to read :
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#175 | |
eBook Enthusiast
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It doesn't change the fact, though, that some languages have dictionaries which are, in some sense or another, regarded as the "official definition" of the language, and that other languages do not. Don't you find that interesting? I do! |
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#176 | |
Dry fruit
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#177 | |
curmudgeon
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Xenophon |
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#178 |
Dry fruit
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Here, lookup the APR11 entry : http://www.robertfulghum.com/ , Fulghum says it all (by the way, I love what he writes: "everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten" is one of my all times favorite!)
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#179 |
Greasy biker
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(New boy leaps in after testing water with elbow)
Speaking personally I`d hate to have to learn English if I didn`t already mostly times be speaking of the tongue of England lagwidge since I was a children. Anyroadup there are so many strange subtleties to English that must make it difficult to learn, take there, their, they`re. How many times do people get the wrong one when writing but they sound exactly the same and mean totally different things? Or bough (as in tree), Scarbrough (Yorkshire seaside town), tough, through all end in ough but sound totally different. What a weird language. And don`t get me going on the apostophe ![]() Last edited by Tinwolf; 04-17-2009 at 09:55 AM. |
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#180 | |
MR Drone
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Unforturnately, People think English is an Easy Language to learn. It is not. No language is... |
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