Re: A Real puzzler

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:
> News to me. Not a language I know. "Explicitly"? You're
> saying that ";-)" or ":)" distinctly expresses all that is
> meant? "Text", to me, is a structure created with words.

I cannot help thinking that Robert is pulling our leg,
exaggerating to make a point. But I agree with his point: to
fall back on hieroglyphs or pictograms is not progress. Even
if language is not divine in origin (as I hold it is, and
Robert does not), it is surely the highest human
achievement. "The word and naught else in time abideth."

Maben replied:

> then something that
> we do quite naturally in casual conversation in one
> another's presence (when, for example, we say the
> exact opposite of what we mean, and then smile), cannot
> be expressed in an e-mail, without defeating the
> purpose of the contrary statement.
Written language and spoken language have, as I have
observed before, different conventions and different tools
at their disposal. And e-mail is a species of written, not
spoken, language. So we do whatever we would do in any
writing to convey our meaning.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx