The English Language

[mockery0]

I've always understood, at an intellectual level, that language is a complicated beast. I'm also familiar with the claim that English is particularly convoluted. Only today, thanks to a Wikipedia article has it ever really resonated with me. Ripped straight from the site, consider the following sentence:

I never said she stole my money.Solely

Comments

[janna]

Are these conotations really unique to English, though? The root meaning is still #2, with added implications that indicate more about the situation. I would expect this would happen in any language, at least I don't see why not.

[mockery0]

True they're probably not unique to English, although I have an (unsubstantiated) feeling that English is particularly "bad" in this regard... I guess the interesting thing to me is that any language can be so nuanced.

From an engineering standpoint, it's a little depressing, but from a creative standpoint, it's exciting!

[macdaddyfrosh]

Have you been listening to RadioLab?

[mockery0]

Wha?

[macdaddyfrosh]

There's a radio show (called "RadioLab') that does hour-long podcasts on fun stuff; they were talking about pitch and tonal languages in the most-recent one, and the "Ma Ma Ma Ma" thing came up.