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From: Stephen Humble <deeb@fardm4.boston.deshaw.com>
Subject: Re: SF & Language - Minimums
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Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 00:34:23 GMT
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deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff) sez:
> However, if the reason you can't speak the language is that the
> grammar is irreconcible with your own hardwired universal grammar,
> how would seeing that grammar reproduced in written form overcome
> the difficulty?

Whenever part of the problem is overflowing short-term memory?

When I get lost in a long Turkish sentence, I sometimes resort to
reading it backwards to get an approximation of English.  That trick
won't work in speech unless the sentence is short enough that I can
keep it all in my head at once - and then I don't need a trick.

<handwaving>

Turkish isn't alien - it's just unfamiliar.  If a language really did
something that my "universal grammar" can't handle (pronouns as
numerous and far-ranging as C pointers?  a relativization rule that
says "Reverse the branching direction of the embedded clause, mark
everything in both clauses to show where it came from, and interleave
them." >:-) I think I'd need all the help I can get.

</handwaving>

Stephen

