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Steve Bliss <blisses@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> It also means there are 50 thousand rules to learn, and 50 million
> exceptions to those rules.
Luckily human beings are very good at that. In fact, the rules seem to be
mostly descriptive -- we naturally say things a certain way, and then
retroactively we look and say, "ok, that's the right way to say it because
of such-and-such-rule". Human minds are good at language -- the behavior
operates at a subconscious level and we don't have to think about the rules
to form a sentence. We just do it, and then if we want figure out the rules
as an academic exercise.
> At least we don't have to cojugate (sp?) anything...
Actually, we do. (I am, you are, he is, we are, y'all are, they are)
But we don't have much by way of declensions.
--
Matthew Miller ---> mattdm@mattdm.org
Quotes 'R' Us ---> http://quotes-r-us.org/
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Perl rules!
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| (...) It's a good thing human minds are good at language -- can you imagine if parents actually had to teach their children to speak? That would be painful. Believe me, I know -- I tried for 4 years. *Then* my kid decided he was ready to talk. But (...) (25 years ago, 13-Jul-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.off-topic.geek)
| | | Re: Perl rules!
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| (...) *shake* not quite true. HAve you ever learned a language foreign to you? I'v ebeen lucky enough to learn English as virtually a second mother language (early start, mostly), but I've also learnt French, German, Latin and ancient Greek (to (...) (25 years ago, 22-Jul-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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