Re: Word count of minimum vocabulary

Mok-Kong Shen wrote:

I should mention (even though possibly unnecessarily) one of the
applications of the minimum-sized vocabularies. In learning a foreign
language, it frequently is the case that one doesn't want to master
that language perfectly (including in-depth studies of literature
classics etc.) but only to be able to communicate one's own thought
(in a certain domain of discourse) to the foreigners freely and
perfectly.

From my experience, the hard part in literature is grammar, not
vocabulary. I am at a loss to produce any italian even though I know
what more than 90% of the words mean.

This is not to criticise or discourage you, but just to point out that
sometimes obvious assumptions just don't hold. I wish it were otherwise,
but it isn't.

Daniels: Chinese does not use ideographs.

Answer: From Collins Concise Dictionay: ideogram or ideograph: a sign
or symbol, used in a writing system such as that of China, that
directly represents a concept or thing, rather than a word for it.

1. Never quote a [generalist] dictionary in a discussion. It would be
very surprising if the people writing the entry knew more than the ones
discussing the matter. Unless, of course, the other party knows very
little and you know yourself more than the entry says (and find the
entry to be good). Otherwise, you'll just make a fool of yourself
(appealing to discredited authority is a big no-no).

2. You should know that chinese characters do represent words and not
concepts. Hint: if they did represent concepts, the japanese wouldn't
have to have invented hiragana. Hint nº 2: instead of trying to come up
with a counter-argument for the previous hint (which, oddly, is what
most people do!), realise it's just that - a hint to you, so that you
may picture yourself why your position isn't correct (because the mere
fact that it isn't is, quite simply, unavoidable).

Herring: Just guessing here, but I doubt if those 323 million words
are all different.

Answer: From the envelope of Collins Concise Dictionary: The Bank of
English is a computerized collection of more than 323 million words
of current English created by Collins Dictionaries and the University
of Birmingham to record how language is used and is changing.

....which just indicates that Richard's suspicion that those are not
distinct words is correct.
--
am

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