From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Apr 9 9:13:42 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from news-ma.rhein-neckar.de (news-ma.rhein-neckar.de [193.197.90.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 092A837B8A8 for ; Sun, 9 Apr 2000 09:13:31 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from daemon@bigeye.rhein-neckar.de) Received: from bigeye.rhein-neckar.de (uucp@localhost) by news-ma.rhein-neckar.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with bsmtp id SAA20275 for freebsd-chat@freebsd.org; Sun, 9 Apr 2000 18:12:57 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from daemon@bigeye.rhein-neckar.de) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by bigeye.rhein-neckar.de (8.9.3/8.9.3) id QAA57464 for freebsd-chat@freebsd.org; Sun, 9 Apr 2000 16:38:54 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from daemon) From: naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Re: BSDCon East Date: 9 Apr 2000 16:38:54 +0200 Message-ID: <8cq4lu$1o3a$1@bigeye.rhein-neckar.de> References: <3.0.6.32.20000407145548.008cf100@mail85.pair.com> <20000407120154.A9276@sofia.csl.sri.com> <3.0.6.32.20000407145548.008cf100@mail85.pair.com> <3.0.6.32.20000407163211.00872d00@mail85.pair.com> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org G. Adam Stanislav wrote: > Italian grammar is fairly simple, I won't comment on Italian grammar, since I know hardly anything about it, but... > though not as simple as English (whose grammar is virtually > non-existent), ... this is a wide-spread belief and--excuse me--pure rubbish. I have _A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language_ by Quirk et al. sitting here, which explains the "non-existent" intricacies of English grammar on nearly 1800 pages. And it's probably not exhaustive. For many linguistically naive people, the simplicity of a language's grammar seems to hinge on the degree of inflection. Having a few noun cases, adjective/noun agreements, and a few verb conjugations does not make for an objectively(!) difficult grammar. English has the same complexity, it's just expressed differently. Once you get beyond the basic level of "me Tarzan, you Jane", English syntax becomes fiendishly difficult. -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message