Most "precise" language (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Most "precise" language
Share with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Language Learning Forum : General discussion	( Topic Closed)

19 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4534 days ago
1546 posts - 3200 votes

Studies: German

Message 17 of 19

24 April 2013 at 4:28pm | IP Logged

hrhenry wrote:

Well, but some languages have gender that's not used in the usual sex-oriented way.
Ojibwe, for example has gender, but it's based on animacy/inanimacy. Taking that away,
you'd lose a good deal of cultural information.
==

That's really interesting. You are right of course, so long as gender contains culturally important information then of course it conveys information.

My sense is that in German that's no longer the case, but perhaps I am wrong. I am coming from a native English speaker and am learning German so of course my understanding is somewhat shallow. Though having talked with native speakers, I also get the impression they think that gender only refers to arbitrary noun classes in their minds.

Edited by patrickwilken on 24 April 2013 at 4:37pm
1 person has voted this message useful

mrwarper
Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
Spain
forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5227 days ago
1493 posts - 2500 votes

Speaks: Spanish*, English^C2
Studies: German, Russian, Japanese

Message 18 of 19

24 April 2013 at 5:25pm | IP Logged

I don't know what the most 'precise' language is. What I do know is that, even if we take 'precision' in the canonical sense of 'near zero ambiguity', it certainly doesn't imply 'accuracy', nor 'appropriateness', which I would deem more important in most forms of communication...
1 person has voted this message useful

svalbard
Diglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 4279 days ago
5 posts - 10 votes
Speaks: German*, English

Message 19 of 19

24 April 2013 at 9:16pm | IP Logged

I can think of two language features that I think reduce a statements ambiguity and
reduce chances of miscommunication:
First person clusivity (inclusive and exclusive "we")
Obligatory grammatical evidentiality (maybe The Sun and similar tabloids wouldn't exist
if English had this? ;) )

The Quechua languages have both of these features.

As an example for Quechua evidentiality here's a quote from wiki:

"Nearly every Quechua sentence is marked by an evidential clitic, indicating the source
of the speaker's knowledge (and how certain s/he is about the statement). The enclitic
=mi expresses personal knowledge (Tayta Wayllaqawaqa chufirmi, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a
driver-- I know it for a fact"); =si expresses hearsay knowledge (Tayta Wayllaqawaqa
chufirsi, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a driver, or so I've heard"); =chá expresses high
probability (Tayta Wayllaqawaqa chufirchá, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a driver, most
likely")."

4 persons have voted this message useful

This discussion contains 19 messages over 3 pages: << Prev 1 2 3

Sorry, you can NOT post a reply.
This topic is closed.

Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum

This page was generated in 0.5000 seconds.