At 12:00 PM 4/3/2001 +0100, Simon Cozens wrote:
>On Mon, Apr 02, 2001 at 09:12:00PM +0200, Kai Henningsen wrote:
> > In fact, I've come up with the same idea independently. Except I'd go a
> > bit further and claim that only a native English speaker could possibly
> > come up with the idea that irregularity is useful.
>
>I'd say that only a linguist could possibly come up with the idea. :)
Nah, there are a lot of different disciplines that would think this.
Architects, landscape designers, and a variety of mathematicians and
applied physicists spring to mind... :)
> > It's most definitely not.
>
>Then you'll have no problems with these little teasers:
>
>1) Name one perfectly regular natural language. ("Natural" in the sense of
>"having native speakers")
>
>2) Explain why, if people *want* regularity, the evolution of natural
>languages has tended *away* from regularity in almost all circumstances.
Dunno--the older a language is, the more regular it seems to be. (The rough
edges get worn off, I assume) While Latin had a reasonably complex set of
rules, it was more regular than English. Japanese feels the same, though
I'll grant I've little enough experience with it that my impression might
be wrong or incomplete.
Irregularity seems to come in with the new, and gets beaten down a bit with
long usage.
Dan
--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski even samurai
[EMAIL PROTECTED] have teddy bears and even
teddy bears get drunk
