* Jaroslaw Rafa via mailop: > If we did travel into realms of philosophy (which your email > definitely did :)), then it is worth to note that a language is > primarily something that one speaks, not writes. Writing is secondary > to spoken language. You cannot speak emojis, so it's not a language. > At least IMHO.
Remembering what I learned a long time ago: The formal definition of "language" as used in communications research is the transmission of information by means of a shared system of symbols and rules. Now if only I could remember the exact source for that definition... Anyhow, the "symbols" in this context can be phonemes, pictograms, and what have you; all that's required is a shared understanding of meaning. If we agree that :-) represents a smile, this sequence of characters or drawn lines becomes a symbol and part of our language. It may be crude or ambiguous, but spoken languages can be misunderstood as easily as written ones. -Ralph _______________________________________________ mailop mailing list mailop@mailop.org https://list.mailop.org/listinfo/mailop
