Re: Representing futuristic English

On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:43:18 -0700, David Friedman
<ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:ddfr-2BF59F.09431806102005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
rec.arts.sf.composition:

> In article <1h4182w.1fcn3eisd93dkN%zeborah@xxxxxxxxx>,
> zeborah@xxxxxxxxx (Zeborah) wrote:

>> David Friedman <ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[...]

>>> Brian's point may perhaps be correct in terms of some definition of
>>> amount of change in a language--I don't think he has said just what
>>> definition he would prefer.

>> I'm pretty certain he hasn't, because it'd be a damn difficult thing to
>> define. Linguistics is not a purely quantitative field, and most
>> linguists are fairly comfortable with this.

> Hence you and Brian actually have no opinion about whether linguistic
> change is slowed by improved communication technology?

Obviously we do.

> That isn't what has been coming across. But if you can't
> define rate of change, it's hard to see how you can have
> an opinion about how it is affected by things.

'Can't give a definition without damn' near writing a
monograph' is not the same as 'have no concept in mind' and
does not imply 'can't make a decent subjective and
qualitative estimate of relative amounts'. You can't do
historical linguistics as if it were physics. (Your
economics sometimes goes overboard in that direction, too.)

[...]

Brian
.

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