Re: History of French

From: Herman Rubin (hrubin_at_odds.stat.purdue.edu)
Date: 09/26/04 

Date: 25 Sep 2004 20:44:59 -0500

In article <nsanders.DIE.SPAM-2101BF.12405724092004@news.verizon.net>,
Nathan Sanders <nsanders.DIE.SPAM@wso.williams.edu> wrote:
>In article <cj1hcd$3co4@odds.stat.purdue.edu>,
> hrubin@odds.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) wrote:

>> >It doesn't really matter, since the abstract language isn't real.
>> >It's just a convenient description for a group of similar idiolects.
>> >The person defining it can deal with variation however they want to.

>> This is why students cannot communicate and cannot
>> understand ideas today.

>Knowing or not knowing the prestige dialect doesn't affect one's
>understanding of ideas.

The "prestige dialect" itself may block the understanding
of ideas. A language needs the STRUCTURE to be able to
process what is not included in the limits of the set of
words which are in the dialect. The current teaching of
just about anything in the schools claims that one can only
learn the structure by generalizing from a class of cases,
and limits the teaching to that. You can destroy mental
ability by stifling it. 

-- 
This address is for information only.  I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu         Phone: (765)494-6054   FAX: (765)494-0558

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