From: <GBurch1@aol.com>
> Not really. Since sometime after 1000 BCE written Chinese has been mainly
> *ideographic*, retaining remnants of its pictographic orgins only in the
> simplest words (such as *ren* or "man", *shan* or "mountain", etc.). Modern
> written Chinese is a complex blend of ideographic and phonetic elements,
> further confusing things.
Thanks for explaining that so clearly and succinctly, Greg.
Nice that someone actually knows about this subject.
> That may be a stretch, but when we consider what the Taliban think of as
> "pornographic", who knows?
Yes, the Taliban would probably consider most "romance novels" as pornography
(as do many Western moralists).
One last question:
Do you think the ideographic language of China has held them back from
scientific exploration, since phonetic language can more easily coin new terms
for discovered phenomena?
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
Useless hypotheses:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:44 MDT