REH replied:
> I can express a thought in Cherokee with 7 words that will take many
> paragraphs to say in English if you really want to translate the meaning and
> intention of the original.
I was talking about the mapping of an idea to text in one language,
not the mapping from one language into another. No matter whether the
language is Cherokee or English, the same idea can expressed in more
or less words **of a given language**. (Speaking several languages,
I am well aware of what you say about translating meanings.)
Keith Hudson replied:
> You're quite right. It's very difficult to write succinctly -- to render
> down an argument or a theory to its bare essentials (as in many of the 500
> word articles in Calus).
I sampled a few of them and found them good examples of rendering down a
bias. You may want to introduce a reviewer system like www.nupedia.com
(or try to join them ;-}).
> I wasn't clear enough when I wrote: " 'Cos it's too easy to write short
> messages." What I really meant was that it's too easy to write a short
> (usually emotive, and sometimes belligerant) comment on somebody else's
> views.
Ah, but it isn't soo easy to pick out representative flaws in a long text
and criticise them in a succinct and informed way. Actually IRL this is
what consultants are being paid for doing.
Chris
