Welcome to the Language Conference!

One thing you may notice about this conference is that it is NOT called the
"Foreign Languages Conference" or "Languages Conference".  This is primarily
because most people on Grex do not speak more than one language, and to have
such a conference would exclude most of the people here.  This, of course,
would be counterproductive!

But never fear!  You have not just joined the "Languages" Conference, but
rather the "Language" Conference.  Whether you love it, like me, or hate it,
language is something that affects everyone, all the time, whether or not
you ever had Spanish in high school.  Without the use of language, there could
be no bbsing, for one thing, and none of us would be here.

This conference will contain one item for the speaking of every foreign
language spoken by Grex users.  Other items will be typed in English,
discussing issues in language that affect (and hopefully also interest)
everyone.  Don't be afraid to enter an item because you fear it's inappropriate
to this conference.  It probably isn't!

So let's use those language skills and talk to each other!

Griz

111 responses total.

 "Whether you love it, like me, or hate it, language is something ..."

I think most of us love language *AND* like you.  :-)

Haha.  :-)

Griz

Good start, Larry!

What if I don't like, Jennie? :)

Well, you'll just have to be tarred and feathered.

Griz

What if I don't KNOW Jennie? Do I get the tar and feathers, too?

Likhi IJO  okjoijopij!!

Mister Craig, it has been a while.
(does that make him sound a bit like a hairdresser?)

Leth see.... spruth it up a bit here with mooth....
 
Ooops, that isnt politically correct........
 
Hi Ruth.  You arent on fire are you?

Not that I'm aware of.
(unless, of course, my slacks have begun smoldering again...I'd thought they'd
be safe out on the telephone wire...)

This could get as interesting as ENGL:FORUM was. Worked wonders for

those who joined - but the English Dept didn't think it attracted
the "right" people. So after a semester of  a whole lotof fun by
us "wrong" sorts, the dept dropped support - and thus the conference.

        "Love your enemies in case your friends turn out to be a bunch
         of bastards."

Words are overrated as a communication device.  Too often, they fail as a means
to get across an idea.

Do the words fail, or do we fail to use the words?

Music is the best communications device.

Words are under-taught as a communications device. The wrong words
used create the problem. 

I find that there are some concepts that just defy language.  One has to rely
on the experience of others in order to get across the meaning behind what you
say, no matter how many different ways you can think of to phrase it.

Darmok and Jelad at Tinagre!

pass

I must argue TS's point.  It is not simply the misuse of words which causes the
problem, although the choice of the right words in a given situation can make a
world of difference.  A great portion of the problems come from parties
refusing to listen to what other parties are actually *saying*, and to actually
consider the meaning of what others say before refuting their points.  One of
the great advantages of a forum such as this, is that by the process of
reading, we are required to more fully register the ideas and thoughts of
others before we can effectively respond to them, although I have found that
some people do respond to part of what they have read,  apparently without
reading enough to realize that by doing so, they are responding
inappropriately...

short attention span.

Is this the proper place to broach the following AI design?
 Mind.rexx is available from ftp.wustl.edu in directory pub/aminet/util/rexx.
   /^^^^^^^^^^^^\      Mind.rexx Artificial Intelligence   /^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\
  / Visual       \               ______                   / Auditory       \
 | Memory Channel |             /      \  ultimate-tag   | Memory Channel   |
 |                |            / syntax \<---------------|---------------\  |
 |                |            \  node  /       ______   |               |  |
 |                |             \______/------>/      \  |               |  |
 |     round-about| connection     |          /function\ |               |  |
 |    /-----------|-------------\  |flush     \ cable  / |               |  |
 |    |           |             |  |vector     \______/  |     ______    |  |
 |    |           |            _V__V_               |    |    /      \   |  |
 |   _|___        |           /      \ recall-vector|    |   / stored \  |  |
 |  /     \  re-af|firmation /logico- \-------------|----|-->\  stem  /  |  |
 | /percept\<-----|-------->/conceptual\ (onset-tag)|    |    \______/   |  |
 | \       / line |         \ cable    /            |    |         |     |  |
 |  \_____/       |          \________/       ______V_   | ultimate|-tag |  |
 |                |                          /        \<-|---------'     |  |
 |                |                         /inflection\ |     ________  |  |
 |                |                         \  cable   /-|--->/        \ |  |
 |                |                          \________/  |   /  stored  \|  |
 |                |                                      |   \inflection/   |
 |                |                                      |    \________/    |

excuse me, I think I'm confused.  Or maybe not.  Maybe I'm too confused to tell
whether I'm confused or not.  Was that a bee hive?  Or a visual discourse on
the nature of artificial language?

I thought it was a gerbil cage. Arthur, if there is something to be
said about AI and language, I'd like to learn more. How about 
a new Item, if there is enough content?

er, i thought it was a jungle gym...
To get back to the subject, i think that most people don't realize the 
range of expression that's available in the English language or the subtleties
of our inflection system.

"Language is a virus from outer space--and hearing your name is better
than seeing your face"--Laurie Anderson 1983
Not necessarily my opinion, but *someone* had to say it:)

First one to tell me who already said it in this conference wins a...
a... ummm...  Oh, poop!  I'll think of something... <sigh>

Well, William S. Burroughs already said it, does that count?  >8)

Seriously, he said it originally, Laurie got it from him.

Thanks, Robert!  I had totally forgotten about William S. Burroughs.
He certainly counts (even though I'll bet he's not in this conference =>

        Looked like a flow chart, a dinosaur from the times of Assembly and

Fortran.  Psuedo code is used now.

Rule #17 OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS!

We try.

Great looking design by Arthur.... could not understand ABCD of it.. Arthur
telle in words what you wanted to say..

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to say hello and 'Selamat Datang' ( Welcome)

Welcome Yenny. Is that an Indonesian Language?

There is a discussion in Item 27 of coop about a proposal to make Grex
conferences open to reading on the WEB without requiring readers to open
Grex accounts (called "anonymoous web reading of conferences"). An
argument in favor of doing this is that it could attract new participants
in conferencing after readers get a taste of what it is like. If you have
an opinion on this with regard to this conference, let us know: if you
have a opinion with regard to any other conference, you might start a
discussion of it there. In any case, you can read all sides of the issue
in coop item 27.

#34, well... actually it a Malay Language
spoken by the Malay people in Malaysia
Steve, do u know  Indonesian Language?

#36, I forgot to mention that Malay & In doneisan , they are more
or less the same ( like the greetings etc) but they can be quite different
sometimes. Even I have difficulty understanding the Indonesian Language

No. I am not familiar with languages from that part of the world at all.
I am curious about all languages, though.

tell me more about Malaya language.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss