From: Perry E. Metzger (perry@piermont.com)
Date: Mon Oct 06 2003 - 19:26:06 MDT
Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org> writes:
> On Mon, Oct 06, 2003 at 07:46:07PM -0400, EvolverTCB@aol.com wrote:
> > http://www.nature.com/nsu/030929/030929-6.html
>
> Wrong; http://www.nature.com/nsu/030120/030120-3.html
>
> > A language that conveyed all information unambiguously, say Ferrer
> > i Cancho and Sol?, would have a separate word for every thing,
> > concept or action it referred to. Such a language would be
> > formidably complicated for the speaker: the green of grass, for
> > example, would be represented by a totally different word to the
> > green of sea, an emerald or an oak leaf.
>
> That is so mind-numbingly asinine I feel no need to read the rest.
Is it? There are human languages which have different color
distinctions in them than English does. It is also unclear where
certain distinctions should be drawn. What is a book vs. a magazine,
at the edge? (If you subscribe to "Granta", this is a quarterly
question in one's mind.)
Anyway, I strongly doubt it is possible to produce a language without
ambiguity...
Perry
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