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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: plural markers 
Message-ID: <elnaDxBwAx.156@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <4v08hq$9ss@sunburst.ccs.yorku.ca> <7fd904p026.fsf@wisdom.cs.hku.hk> <elnaDx8EuB.6JD@netcom.com> <50o9a1$93s@malasada.lava.net>
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 20:44:56 GMT
Lines: 24
Sender: elna@netcom8.netcom.com

wing@lava.net (Wing C Ng) writes in a recent posting (reference <50o9a1$93s@malasada.lava.net>):
>In article <elnaDx8EuB.6JD@netcom.com>,
>Esperanto League N America <elna@netcom.com> wrote:
>>>
>>Do you really mean to suggest that the distinction between "horse" and 
>>"horses" can be ignored in a useful language? Or between "he" and "they"?
>
>There is no inflection in Chinese, or many Asian languages, to
>indicate a plural.
>
>There are ways to indicate it, e.g. saying "a herd of horses".
>
Yes, non-inflecting languages *do* mark plurality; it is simply done
in a different way than inflecting languages.
It is interesting to see that Chinese (and presumably other tongues) 
use the option of not specifying number *unless it is needed*. This
seems to me to lead to a different kind of difficulty-- recognizing
the instances in which this need arises....

-- 
Miko SLOPER                   elna@netcom.com         USA  (510) 653 0998
Direktoro de la          ftp.netcom.com:/pub/el/elna   fax (510) 653 1468 
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