Re: Invention of the Alphabet

Lee Sau Dan <danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> >>>>> "Des" == Des Small <des.small@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> Des> LSD! Your point is not a point, since it is false.
>
> Des> PTD's yardstick was that one criterion for Chinese wordiness
> Des> would be the headwords in the CHINESE TO ENGLISH side of a
> Des> Chinese-English dictionary.
>
> Des> For your comparison with English words to make sense, the
> Des> only honest thing to do would be to consider the ENGLISH TO
> Des> SOMETHING side of an English-Something dictionary.
>
> Easy. Take English-French. What's "railway" in French? "Chemin de
> fer". So, "chemin de fer" must be _one single word_, right?

Wrong.

The correct conclusion is that "railway" is a single word in English,
which after all it is. Your persistent non-sequiturs are becoming
very tiresome. The proposal was to use the CHINESE headwords in the
CHINESE TO ENGLISH side of a bilingual dictionary as evidence of
lexical elements IN CHINESE.

Your "analogous" example above is simply and obviously not analogous,
of course, but you are starting to persuade me it is as much genuine
stupidity as ill-will that is preventing you from acknowleging this.

> Even though "chemin" means "road" and "fer" means "iron"?
>
>
> Des> Of the dictionaries to hand (Collins Gem French-English,
> Des> Langenscheidts Universal Wörterbuch Englisch-Deutsch, Berlitz
> Des> Dutch-English, Norsted's Engelska Fickordbok), none - not a
> Des> single one! - has an entry for "train station" under "train"
> Des> in the English to Foreign side.
>
> English German? Then "remember (inf.)" maps to "sich erinnern
> (inf.)". So, the Germans lexicographers are all wrong to write "sich
> erinnern" with a space in between. Since it's one word in English, it
> must be also 1 word in German, right?

No, for the same reason as above and for the same reason as in
the previous post. It's one (1) word in English, and the number of
words it is in English is one (1), and the language in which the
number of words it is by looking for English headwords in a bilingual
dictionary is English (in which the number of words it is is one (1)).

I no longer think I can cause you to understand the argument, though,
trivial though it is.

Des
will leave it to you to claim triumph
.

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