Re: Expressiveness


Peter T. Daniels wrote:
Seán O'Leathlóbhair wrote:

Des Small wrote:
"Seán O'Leathlóbhair" <jwlawler@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

Please note that I was not arguing against the belief that all
languages are equally expressive. I was just exploring the
foundation of the belief and wondering why it is frequently
expressed so dogmatically.

Read Bodmer's lamentable _Loom of Langwidge_ (regrettably still in
print, but get it from a libry) and Sapir's _Langwidge_. Then you
will know.

I haven't read them but I have heard of them. The problem I see is
that the dogmatic style is liable to make the claim less convincing
rather than more.

Um, Bodmer's book is total crap. Sapir's book is a candidate for
greatest book on language ever written. (It has apparently been
abandoned by its original publisher and is now a Dover reprint.)


I took that to be Des's point in picking those examples. I have
sampled Sapir but not read it fully. I have heard of Loom of Language
but never seen it.

--
Seán O'Leathlóbhair

.

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