From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 61885
Date: 2008-12-05
----- Original Message -----
From: G&P
>>>> other things being equal words get shorter and shorter rather
>>>> than longer and longer
>>>If this principle were true, we'd be left with only short words like /u/
>>>after 200 000 years. but as Latin shows, .
>>You'll find exceptions in French also .. But the basic point is still
>>correct - in general words tend to get shorter.
>>The mistake is to think that a strong tendency is a hard-and-fast
>>invariable
>>rule.
Piotr pointed to a general tendency. You responded as if it were an
unvarying rule. I said it is a mistake to think a strong tendency is a
hard-and-fast invariable rule.
That's what I was trying to say. I hope I have now said it.
Peter
=============
I wonder if there is not another tendency to enlarge mono-syllabic words.
Chinese "syllables" are most often used in two-syllable words.
Many English mono-syllabic words work in pairs, with a postposition : cut
off, get up, etc.
I've never read that somebody proposed that short words should be considered
more probably inherited than long ones !?
Is there a theory on that ?
A.