Re: All languages are equally fit
- From: António Marques <m.ap@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:14:54 +0100
Trond Engen wrote:
The subject looks like trolling but isn't.
In another group, when someone recently opined that some languages
are more elevated and thus more fit for abstraction, I answered that
linguists agree that all languages are equally fit to express any
thought, with the qualification that some may have a pre-existing
lexicon in a field but all are equally fit to create new terms for
anything from internal resources. I was challenged to provide support
for that, and now I realize that if I've ever seen it in print in a
linguistics book I can't remember where. Any suggestions?
Well, I don't rwally think it works like that. The first question is
'more fit for what?'. In the case you mention, it's 'abstraction'. I
happen to feel that's quite vague, but whatever. Whenever you are
challenged to support something, you need to know what kind of arguments
the other people are expecting. So, the second question would be 'what
is it there in language A that makes you think it is more fit?'. Your
argument then will have to consist of showing that those elements are
either present as well in any language B they choose, or that they would
develop naturally if needed.
I have little doubt that some languages *are* more fit than others for
very specific purposes - and I don't even mean those that they're
usually used for* -, and possibly some will always have an edge over the
rest, but it's very specific concrete purposes - nothing so vague and
vast as 'abstraction'.
(*) Somehow I'm reminded of the way that logarithms were one day found
to make trigonometrical calculations much easier and reliable, when at
first sight there's no relation between one field and the other.
.
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