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angelbob · 03-31-2003, 07:17 PM

Here's maybe a better example. There are many languages where it's common to know multiple at once. English and Spanish is a common combination, as is French with German (again, as in Switzerland).

These combinations obviously give a combined language with more expressivity than either one individually. French and English are both legendary for their ability to express uncommon and subtle shades of meaning, when used by an excellent speaker. So English-plus-Spanish must beat the #### out of Spanish, and French-plus-German must beat the #### out of German.

There are academic treatises that occasionally intersperse specific phrases in other languages ("Gestalt" being used as a psychiatric term, for instance). They almost universally go to the trouble of defining those terms, or make them entirely optional to understanding the text rather than using them fully (as with books containing random quotes in Latin at the start of chapters). That seems odd given your contention that more features always makes a language better, and given the obviously greater expressivity of those combined languages. Where are all the books written in French-plus-German?

03-31-2003, 07:17 PM	#36
angelbob Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA, USA Posts: 39	Here's maybe a better example. There are many languages where it's common to know multiple at once. English and Spanish is a common combination, as is French with German (again, as in Switzerland). These combinations obviously give a combined language with more expressivity than either one individually. French and English are both legendary for their ability to express uncommon and subtle shades of meaning, when used by an excellent speaker. So English-plus-Spanish must beat the #### out of Spanish, and French-plus-German must beat the #### out of German. There are academic treatises that occasionally intersperse specific phrases in other languages ("Gestalt" being used as a psychiatric term, for instance). They almost universally go to the trouble of defining those terms, or make them entirely optional to understanding the text rather than using them fully (as with books containing random quotes in Latin at the start of chapters). That seems odd given your contention that more features always makes a language better, and given the obviously greater expressivity of those combined languages. Where are all the books written in French-plus-German?