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From: Nick Rezmerski <rezm0001@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: Language as code
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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 16:00:54 GMT
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wolfkir@ibm.net wrote:
>
> Thanks to Ken Ewell and Orpheus for responding.
> 
> It seems to me that 'code' is evolving into a very complex concept.
> 
> Clearly, if language is a code, it's not an encryption-code.
> Equally clearly, it's not a semantic code (as, eg, telegraph code
> was/is.)
> 
> If I understand both Ken and Orpheus correctly, it's a code because
> it's
> a) systematic (follows rules of construction)
> b) has both encoding and decoding rules (we produce and understand it)
> c) can be transformed at the same level of meaning
>   (ie, any one language can be translated into another)
> 
> H'm... This is getting awf'ly close to a definition of language itself.
> 
> I think I've been quibbling. I think a discussion of the properties of
> language-as-code would be more fruitful.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> wolfkir@ibm.net   (*v*)
> My opinion: 'tis a small thing, but 'tis mine own.

In my introductory linguistics class, we have covered terms such as
'code-switching' and 'code-mixing', and although we were never given
a strict definition of 'code', I took it to mean a sight- or sound-
based representation of thought.

Is that a simple enough definition?  Language is a code which we
use to convey thoughts (albeit imperfectly) to others.

  Nick@Nite / Nicholas J. Rezmerski
   rezm0001@gold.tc.umn.edu - University of Minnesota
    Opinions are clearly mine, not the University of Minnesota's
     (So don't tell them what I said!)
