Re: _Verum Et Factum Convertuntur_ (or: Surprised By Syntax)

Colin Fine wrote:
> > If I write
> >
> > â?*a,b,c â?? G (a âS? b) âS? c = a âS? (b âS? c)
> > â??e â?? G: â?*a â?? G (a âS? e) = (e âS? a) = a
> > â?*a â?? G: â??z â?? G (a âS? z) = (z âS? a) = e
> >
> > This is a translation, but not into a language. It has no phonology or
> > morphology. It has syntax, but the elements of that syntax are utterly
> > different from those of a language. And it has semantics only in the
> > transferred sense I spoke of earlier.
> >
>
> I realised after I posted this that my argument is partly wrong: the
> lack of phonology and morphology do not demonstrate that it is not a
> language (consider sign languages).
> The crucial point remains, however, that it does not have syntax or
> semantics in the way a natural language does.

Perhaps the most crucial property of human language is (Hockett)
"duality of patterning" or (Martinet) "double articulation." Meaningless
units are organized into meaningful units (the -emic principle, not to
be confused with the anthropologists' terms "emic" and "etic" that seem
to get it backward).
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: why cant the BBC
    ... NB "It sure is a reason when reproducing etc." ... conforming to your own native phonology where necessary. ... population speaks an obscure, moribund language. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: What book(s) might you recommend for linguistics in general?
    ... > introductory book on phonology when I lectured on that subject for the ... There are several editions of her excellent *Language Change: ... found my article on library classifications of language and linguistics ... His most important book by far is Psychological Reality ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: why cant the BBC
    ... foreign term in a given language. ... NB "It sure is a reason when reproducing etc." ... conforming to your own native phonology where necessary. ... word/name to reproduce its pronunciation once you've heard it. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: History of French
    ... > They are aspects of language; they are not the totality of language, ... Nothing I've said depends on phonetics and phonology being either the ... >> fundamental to most normal communication. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Is language development evolutionary, or designed by the culture?
    ... >> Phonological changes and syntactic changes are not molded by eolutionary ... in which language would tend to dominate. ... human language is by that very fact capable of existing in any human ... for whom Hindi and its phonology remain prestige. ...
    (sci.lang)