Language processes through cultural time (was: why python annoys me)
Cameron Laird
claird at starbase.neosoft.com
Mon Apr 23 22:01:10 EDT 2001
In article <mailman.987630149.8017.python-list at python.org>,
D-Man <dsh8290 at rit.edu> wrote:
.
.
.
>Only in English. In other languages (Spanish comes to mind, I don't
>really know any others but AFAIK all Romance languages are identical
>in this regard) the verb changes to indicate the subject. I belive
>this comes from the time (~1044 AD) when the Norman French invaded
>England. At that time the smart (rich) people spoke French while the
>uneducated (poor) people spoke English. As a result of the English
>speakers being uneducated and spread out the language evolved to
>become closer to slang and varied from region to region. Sometime
>after the french were no longer ruling the writers of the time began
.
.
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This is a vulgarization of the "English as creole" hypothesis
I learned and believed a long time ago (along with a few tech-
nical errors on which other posters commented). I think there's
now no good reason to believe this (that English "became closer
to slang" as a result of the Norman conquest). <URL:
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/LingWWW/LIN101-102/NOTES-102/Socio8.html >
readably makes the case, the high point of which I'll summarize
here in engineering terms: we have considerable evidence that
English was on a trajectory before and after Norman influence that
does not require a "shock" to explain.
--
Cameron Laird <claird at NeoSoft.com>
Business: http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal: http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html
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