Natural languages, communication, etc

Lexical wealth (was: Origin of Language)

In article <3v8rj9$…@tetsuo.communique.net>,
Patrick H. Adkins <treasure.mount…@mail.sstar.com> wrote:
                        .
                        .
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>expressing both subtle and complicated distinctions.  (In general, I
>mean; yes, I know some Eskimo tribes have 27 or more words for _snow_,
>each with a slightly different meaning.  But given many generalized
>concepts to express, I doubt they’d do as well as English.)

                        .
                        .
                        .
Will the congregation please turn now to item 16 of
<URL:http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/
usenet/sci-lang-faq/faq.html>, wherein we may read

   [T]he Yup’ik language in particular
   has about two dozen roots describing
   snow or things related to snow.  This
   is not particularly significant;
   English can amass about the same total
   …

I know, Mr. Adkins, that this does not bear on your
main point, but it *is* a FAQ.

Cameron Laird           http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html
cla…@Neosoft.com      +1 713 267 7966
cla…@litwin.com       +1 713 996 8546 FAX

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