Re: Word count of minimum vocabulary

"Mok-Kong" == Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Mok-Kong> On the other hand, Chinese is a rather special language

No more special than English.


Mok-Kong> (in particular, it doesn't have an alphabet

Then, it's just the WRITING SYSTEM that is special. Not the language
on itself. And this is based on the norm that "alphabet writing
systems are normal; all the rest are special'". For a Chinese, the
Chinese writing system is very natural and 'obvious', and alphabetic
system may look weird, esp. for English, whose spellings are not that
regular.


Mok-Kong> and is deemed by quite many people to be rather hard to
Mok-Kong> learn),

That's a myth.


Mok-Kong> even though it is one of the major natural languages of
Mok-Kong> the world.

That has little to do with whether a language is difficult.


Mok-Kong> English, on the other hand, is without doubt to be
Mok-Kong> considered the most important natural language for a
Mok-Kong> large number of application fields today and in the
Mok-Kong> future.

Today: yes.
In the future? Are far are you looking into the future? Remember,
100 years ago, it was still French that was taking such a role.


Mok-Kong> What is the size of a vocabulary (with and without
Mok-Kong> counting the "derivatives") for English that corresponds
Mok-Kong> in functionality to the one for Chinese of size 2^10?

You're essentially cheating here because you're deliberating not
counting derivatives. Any good rationales for doing that?



Mok-Kong> And how should one proceed to determine its content? I
Mok-Kong> should appreciate it very much, if there could be some
Mok-Kong> further discussions on such questions in this thread.



--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Word count of minimum vocabulary
    ... Mok-Kong> entirely neglible, nothing more, nor less. ... they have a lot of error-recovery and ... error-detection tricks in the modulation, data transmission, flow ... whose native language is a sign language? ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Word count of minimum vocabulary
    ... Mok-Kong> even a harsh critique on a well-known dictionary. ... That article, like most in the West, treats "Chinese" as one single ... they use Mandarin -- whose native population in Singapore is minute. ... Mok-Kong> A difficult language to learn Mandarin is reputed to ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: 13 Ideas on Language, Information and Intelligence
    ... Mok-Kong> Note that tourists speaking only English ... Mok-Kong> foreign language in schools as well as special language ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Word count of minimum vocabulary
    ... Mok-Kong> even a harsh critique on a well-known dictionary. ... That article, like most in the West, treats "Chinese" as one single ... they use Mandarin -- whose native population in Singapore is minute. ... Mok-Kong> A difficult language to learn Mandarin is reputed to ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Has it been tried to represent tones with punctuation ...
    ... Mok-Kong> because I don't quite understand. ... English often have multiple root words of different origins that ... Secondly, as you have noted, Chinese uses compounding very extensively. ... greatly reduces the number of word roots in Chinese. ...
    (sci.lang)