From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1014db,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public From: Jeffrey George Subject: Re: English SUCKS, Chinese is the only language you need!! Date: 1997/12/17 Message-ID: <34981FC4.D9D1FBC@us.ibm.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 299103202 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <34557f2b.1934172@news.mindspring.com> <3471428A.6193@erdw.ethz.ch> <64sql2$k0@mtinsc04.worldnet.att.net> <3471F184.7924@mWilden.com> <64vc2j$bbt$1@helios.crest.nt.com> <34734E78.6666@mWilden.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: IBM Austin Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++ Date: 1997-12-17T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: This is a defunct thread which has, at this point, absolutely nothing to do with ada, c, or c++, but I couldn't help but be intrigued enough to respond to all the same newsgroups where it appeared. Here's my two cents: Mark Wilden wrote: > > Kaz Kylheku wrote: > > > > Hyphens are not part of the language, they are just an orthographic convention. > > And what do you suppose "orthographic conventions" are part of, if not > the language? Are you saying there is no difference between "release" > and "re-lease"? I'm not sure I follow your logic here; are you saying that there must be a difference between, "re-animate" and "reanimate", simply because they are written differently? Surely you don't mean to suggest the converse, that words which are pronounced and written identically must always have the same meaning? It might be a shock to the pope to find that he was periodically releasing a big, smelly, male animal, when all he meant to do was make an official publication! Well fortunately for the pope, we differentiate "bull" from "bull", and there is very little confusion. Once an expression, like "re-activate", enters common usage, the hyphen vanishes because the word "reactivate" is adopted as part of the common vocabulary which no longer needs to be clarified by the visual breakdown of its morphological components. In other words, from a historical viewpoint, the hyphen is a temporary convenience used to facilitate the entry of new words into the language's phonological writing system. Jeff -- ---------------- Jeff George jgeorge@texas.net When all other means of communication fail, try words.