Re: Languages in Europe - Who understands what ?

From: Peter T. Daniels (grammatim_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 12/01/04 

Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 13:49:35 GMT

Padraig Breathnach wrote:
>
> "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
> >Padraig Breathnach wrote:
> >>
> >> "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> >Now, now. Be nice. They're all leaking in (who knows why) from r.t.e.
> >>
> >> Funny: I thought people were leaking in from sci.lang. I thought the
> >> art world had sorted out problems of perspective some centuries ago.
> >
> >You were discussing the titular topic, and someone along the way
> >crossposted to sci.lang a day or two ago. No one at sci.lang commented
> >until this afternoon -- the discussion was harmlessly naive.
>
> Funny: I had thought people had engaged in the discussion for
> enjoyment, and that many of the contributions were not harmlessly
> naive -- just harmless. Now that you have enlightened me, I'll try to
> adopt an appropriately supercilious position.

Or you could advocate for the inclusion of linguistics in grammar-school
English classes. The main reason people don't know anything about how
language works is that they aren't even aware that it's been the object
of scientific investigation for centuries. 

-- 
Peter T. Daniels                       grammatim@att.net