The secret language code
It was almost as if there was a secret world of pronouns that existed outside our awareness.
It was almost as if there was a secret world of pronouns that existed outside our awareness.
There are at least 250,000 words in the English language. However, to think that English – or any language – could hold enough expression to convey the entirety of the human experience is as arrogant of an assumption as it is naive.Here are a few examples of instances where other languages have found the right word and English simply falls speechless.
How adults approach children aged 3 to 6 years during conversations has a major influence on their language acquisition. Those who address children as fully-fledged conversation partners lay an early basis for the development of 'academic language'...
Consider, for the sake of posterity, the word "Buffalo". The word in isolation can take on at least one of three possible senses:
Buffalo [Noun] ;; As in, Buffalo the animals that are not gnu.
Buffalo [City] ;; As in, Buffalo the city that is not Boston.
Buffalo [Verb] ;; As in, to bewilder or to baffle.Now, gedanken about a string of N consecutive occurrences of the word Buffalo...
A true history of the sentence "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo." as told by the philosopher William J. Rapaport.
