Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
Language is a compilation of a group of sounds that transfer information from one human being to another.

Who's doing the compiling? Are the sounds merely at random?

Word order doesn't mean diddly squat if a meaning is successfully transferred.

Some languages get along just fine without word order. The relationships between words is handled in a different way, e.g., by inflections.

Noam Chomsky - and all others with an egoficial need to pontificate - diddle in their own squat.

While I am no great fan of Chomsky's linguistic theories, I am having a tough time catching the drift of your meaning. Perhaps there isn't any, but I doubt that it has to do with word order. Maybe more to do with context or pragmatics, but in this case there does not seem to be one.


The compiling is done by the language clade. Ain't all languages done that way? And no, zmjezhd, no sounds and no nothings are done merely at random.

Right you are Z, no matter how the transfer of information is effected it serves to continue or discontinue the kind.

My Sentence suggesting that Chomsky and others of his ilk are con-men is because they are. They invent silly constructions and cling to them beyond reality for bucks and ego [hey Z, how did you like my nonce word "egoficial"?] and those so-called "language experts" care zip about any incongruity with that which is real.

Good show, Alex. You stimulated a lively discussion. smile