On Sat, Oct 25, 2003 at 02:03:56PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote: > > > But the "less formal process", i.e., intuitive mapping without know- > > > ing what adjectives, adverbs, participles, etc are is less efficient > > > than having formal knowledge (even if that formal knowledge does not > > > consist of drawing diagrams). > > > > dude, that "less formal process" is the innate human linguistic > > mechanism. no arguing with that one. plenty of people understand > > sentences just fine every day without ever stopping to consider why -- > > and much more efficiently, as anyone who's ever been in a syntax class > > will tell you! > > Sure, but reading anything other than short prose becomes difficult, > and prone to misunderstanding.
Ever tried to read Michel Focault? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22michel+foucault%22&spell=1 He's the only writer I've read who wrote sentences too complex for me to parse and understand. Every sentence is literally about a five-way compound predicate with about three dependant clauses, each one consisting of about a five-way compound adjective, and each paragraph is about five sentences. Everything he says has about 45 concepts in it :-) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]