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From: hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu (H. M. Hubey)
Subject: Re: primitive language
Message-ID: <hubey.788291820@pegasus.montclair.edu>
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References: <3da1bv$i8i@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hubey.788123363@pegasus.montclair.edu> <3dgfkiINN21m@SUNED.ZOO.CS.YALE.EDU>
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 1994 17:57:00 GMT
Lines: 38

horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne) writes:

>In article <hubey.788123363@pegasus.montclair.edu>, hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu (H. M. Hubey) writes:
><
><Probably in order the correct
><the extreme view of the 19th century that languages (like people)
><were superior and inferior, the idea that all languages are equal
><was promoted, "equal" in a sense that whatever you can say in one
><language you can really say in another.

>If all languages are "equal" in that sense, please offer an English
>translation of this Chinese sentence:

>	Shen2me yang4 de ren2 shuo1 shen2me yang4 de hua4.


Why me ?  :-)

I don't know Chinese!

Besides, I wrote that it was "promoted" against the prevalent
ideas of the time.

And finally, the "equal" in the sense above was meant more or less
to explain why languages are thought to be all sufficient to
say anything one might want to say in communication.

My guess is that you're trying to show that Chinese has special
features. I guess all languages do. I would not want to ever
translate poetry but one can get across meanings from one language
to another.



--
						-- Mark---
....we must realize that the infinite in the sense of an infinite totality, 
where we still find it used in deductive methods, is an illusion. Hilbert,1925
