From reid@xxxxxxxx.xxxx Fri Feb 19 09:15:13 1999 X-Digest-Num: 65 Message-ID: <44114.65.266.959273824@eGroups.com> Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 11:15:13 -0600 (CST) From: Christopher Palmer And yet, ironically for those who think intellect and emotion are > opposite poles, Lojban may be superior also for the transmission of > emotional states and poetry. I have had one poet approach me with > interest in Lojban in hopes that it would provide her with a culturally > neutral language. I doubt how effective culture-neutral poetry could be. Without culture or history, metaphor is impoverished and symbolism in non-existent. Doesn't sound much like poetry to me. What am I missing? > The point approaches soon when computers will be able to deliver really > workable real-time language translation in text. How true that isn't. > Of all languages to learn, English is one of the hardest, What are your sources for this? How are measuring difficulty? What are the language-internal implications of difficulty (on scope of expression, flexibility of syntax, ...) Who is it so difficult for? ---------(( Christopher Reid Palmer : www.pconline.com/~reid/ ))--------- the characters i am, made into a word complete -- Meshuggah