Re: Ending a sentence with a preposition (and split infinitives)

[Steven Jong <SteveJong -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

Brad Connatser <cwrites -at- USIT -dot- NET> wrote:

>> English is a mongrel language... The formalized rules of English
composition
>> evolved from Latin- and French-based prescriptive grammars (specifically,
>> from the Chancery in England from about 1300 to 1500), while the innate
>> grammar hardwired into our English brains evolved from Anglo-Saxon.

I think you're venturing into marshy ground here, Brad. I believe the growth
of
language over the last few thousand years is not part of the evolution of the
human
species because it's just too fast.  Besides, if our brains are "hardwired"
for one language, does that mean that we can't learn other languages equally
well?
If one is of mixed ancestry, what languages are hardwired? No, I think that
way lies trouble...

Didn't Minsky theorize that all human languages shared the same fundamental
grammar?
That explains why we in fact *can* learn other languages.

          -- Steve

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Steven Jong, Documentation Group Leader ("Typo?  What tpyo?")
Lightbridge, Inc, 281 Winter St., Waltham, MA 02154 USA
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