assignment expression peeve

[Alex Martelli]

Carl Banks wrote:
   ...
> syntax.  Simple as assignment expressions are, I'm not so sure our
> language circuits can parse a syntax which doesn't exist in any
> language I know of (and I suspect doesn't exist in any language).  If

Hmmm, did my msg of 2 days ago to this thread get lost in the ether?

"""
Once upon a time, in a Kingdom far, far away, there was a
strong, corageous prince, who we'll call Richard, and his weak,
cowardly, but cunning younger brother, who we'll call John,
secretly hated and feated Richard and envied his strength.

One day, Richard and John set out on a fateful hunt in the woods
...
"""

etc, etc.  I didn't see any answer to that -- and I see you keep
claiming that "parenthetically giving a name to some entity
described in discourse" is a construct which may not exist in
any natural language.  In NL you might claim Richard "WAS _the_
name" of the guy, rather than just a monicker WE use for him,
but if the kingdom was sufficiently far away it might make
perfect sense to accept his "real" name is unpronounceable to
us (or forgotten in history, if the time was long enough ago)
so that "Richard" is just a convention we'll use.  You often
also see parenthetical remarks such "this truly evil monopolist
corporation, which I'll call Microfost to protect the innocent",
and the like (explicitly and still parenthetically introducing
a pseudonym).  When you're talking about objects which can't
claim to "have REAL names" (as people are sometimes conceived
to do, as firms legally do, etc) -- and when you _cannot_ use
pronouns (as opposed to just wanting to minimize their use to
minimize referential ambiguity) -- the choice is pretty much
down to introducing such pseudonyms or keep using periphrasis
over and over again, most tediously.  These conditions are more
often met in technical and scientific discourse, which still
remains a perfectly good example of natural language: "the net
expected discounted present value of the whole predicted cash
flow, which we'll call NPV, plays a crucial role in rational
investment decisions".  Also "(NPV for short)" in lieu of
", which we'll call NPV", quite similarly.

So, whatever your arguments against assignment-as-expression,
I just don't think "it's not in natural language" has any
validity to it.


Alex