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#87339 11/20/02 03:31 PM
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We do speak of "windows of opportunity" being closed--and biological clocks, but this torschlusspanik is so much more powerful once you know the story behind it.

And how nice to see up there that tsuwm's been surprised! Why, that's quite emotional of you, dear tsuwm, our resident tiger.


#87340 11/20/02 07:08 PM
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I was, naturellement, only having you on, mia vriend, sondern I couldn't resist taking un petit dig at a statement so bald as, "There are at least twice as many words in the English lexicon over any other language on earth". To make that statement of course, requires one to know exactly how many words there are in every language on Earth. Since you made the statement, you obviously have obtained that information, and I prostrate myself before you for having achieved such feat.


#87341 11/20/02 07:39 PM
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know exactly how many words there are in every language on Earth

No you don't.

There are at least twice as many words in the English lexicon over any other language on earth, (emphasis mine)

You only have to know a maximum for every other language and a minimum for English.

That and a definition of word that can be accepted for every language.


#87342 11/20/02 07:50 PM
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>You only have to know a maximum for every other language and a minimum for English.

Since I started this round of RdPdT, I shall concede. I don't see that the correction makes the task noticeably less onerous, but. For one thing, it appears to me that one still needs to know precisely how many languages there are on Earth, being unable to omit even one (other than English) to be able to make the statement mit main on corazón.


#87343 11/20/02 07:58 PM
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It's still impossible, but it's a much lower order of impossible.


#87344 11/20/02 08:00 PM
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#87345 11/20/02 08:15 PM
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Not my impossible task, vielen Grassias. I wasn't the one who made an impossible to prove, or even define, statement.


#87346 11/20/02 08:37 PM
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We could always apply statistical methods. Take a random sampling of world languages and a random sampling of estimates of number of words-necessary-to-function in each of the languages.


#87347 11/20/02 08:41 PM
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>We could always apply statistical methods.

Lies, damned lies & ...


#87348 11/20/02 08:45 PM
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>Lies, damned lies & ...

... the World Wide Web! : )


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