The advantage of SAMPA is that it's very close to IPA (you'll most certainly find a link to IPA on the SAMPA page). And BEING COUNTER-INTUITIVE is not a disadvantage at all, since IPA is also counter-intuitive - especially to speakers of English. Linguistics is very often counter-intuitive, and that probably applies to science in general. I don't think there is a more scientific and more computer-friendly system out there. Of course, /u/ instead of <oo> is counter-intuitive to speakers of English, of course /S/ instead of <sh> seems strange, but only because <sh> is the grapheme you learn in school. In linguistics (especially phonetics and phonology), it doesn't really make sense to write <sh> instead of /S/. Of course those are all opinion, since there is no TRUTH in general. Of course I think it would be agood idea to use SAMPA throughout, but it's maybe better to include a transcription closer to English PLUS a more scientific transcription. Although SAMPA is not THAT hard to learn, I don't wanna force anyone to do so.---- Yes- that is 80% opinion at least. Further, this is a site where anyone can use whatever transcription system they like, and even, though it would be rude, anyone change someone else's transcription system. In my opinion, any transcription system that includes numbers rather than letters is more counter-intuitive than one that tries to confine itself to relatively familiar alphabets. Furthermore, British English speakers are brought up on the IPA, due to the influence of the OED, unlike Americans, and find it quite natural.
--- yeah, sure, I'd prefer to write in IPA, though that's not possible for technical reasons now is it? Sure, people with linguistic training from the UK feel that IPA is quite natural, but even IPA transcriptions may vary. Anyway... I don't think it would be a good idea to exclude SAMPA or IPA transcriptions. SAMPA only has SOME numbers, it's mainly or as far as possible it's identical with IPA.
--- I'll include ORTHOGRAPHY in the LINGUISTICS SECTION, because orthography is not language per se, but it is part of linguistics.
No answer for the last 4 months. I've removed the word. If anyone wants to put it back, please define it. -LC
I have removed the sentence that says that language is a technology. Just read the definiton in the technology entry. Calypso
I'm removing this, which has no place here until someone can provide a more in-depth description of both the nature of animal languages and which definitions of "language" they don't live up to:
--Ryguasu 07:14 Jan 9, 2003 (UTC)
i wanna to know about the theoretically base for verbal memorising (in China, we use the word "recite")in EFL/ESL for middle school students. 1. Does "verbal memorising" equally mean " rote memorising", if not, why? 2. If "verbal memorising" is effective, then , how can it benefits the future real communication? 3. If "verbal memorising" isn't effective, and the immersion method (eg,in Canada)is still far to be proven as effective, in countries such as China, Japan where English input is badly not enough, what can we do?
Thanks for any suggestion, more detailed information is esp. welcome. Email: pan_nelson@21cn.com
Is it actually correct to say that a programming language is a kind of formal language? I admit that there is a set S of syntactically valid programs for a given language L. Now, following Formal language, we could say that L is nothing more than S. However, this seems misleading, because L has not only a syntax by a semantics. Thus I'm confused if someone is seriously claiming that programming languages are formal languages, no more, no less. --Ryguasu 04:18 Apr 3, 2003 (UTC)
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