Re: Spanish & Portuguese

From: Gerry Reinhart-Waller
Message: 896
Date: 2000-01-13

[Sasha]: I deeply doubt that it could work. Too weak is the connection
> between the language and the biological peculiarities of the speakers,
> too quickly (in biological scale) languages change, too big is the
> grammatical difference between apparently related languages (take
> English and Russian).
>
Gerry: Actually when you look at the biological evolution of a species
and the evolution of language (both of language families and of
individuals) there seems to be an inherent similarity. I still haven't
nailed why this is so, but I'm working on it.

[Gerry]: Actually I think the connection between language and biology
is
> far from weak,

[Sasha]:
Do Afroamerican's babies start to speak English later than those whose
parents
came from England?

Gerry: Of course not. But the development of Afroamerican and English
babies' languages could be similar to the biological development of the
infants. Does this make sense?

Sasha: Unfortunately, Russian pupils suffering from English irregular
verbs or tenses like Future In The Past Perfect Continuous (absolutely
absurd from the poin of view of Russian grammar) don't know this. They
would feel some relief.
Up to now I rack my brains over the problem: what an article to use?
"The"? Or "a"? Or none? Or both at once?

Gerry: Here's a quick "hint" on differentiating between when to use
"the" and when to use "a". When speaking of things in general use "the"
i.e. the world, the universe, the food, the library etc. When speaking
of something in particular i.e. a continent, a planet, an appetizer, a
book etc. use the term "a". And of course, when in doubt, leave out.
(That's also good information for a successful diet ;-))

"consciousness studies". Are you aware of it?

Sasha: Not, unfortunately. I would be grateful if you briefly informed
me about their main ideas and conclusions.

Gerry: Perhaps you might be able to find a thread on consciousness
studies at: http://www.human-nature.com
If not get back to me.

Gerry

--
Gerald Reinhart
Independent Scholar
(650) 321-7378
waluk@...
http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com