[Ads-l] "The root of all languages"

[Joel Berson]

HIstorian Bernhard Knollenberg writes that if he says he has "not found" something, that means he has searched for it; when he says he has “not seen” something, that means that “while I have kept on the lookout for the missing evidence, I have not made a search for it.”

Joel


________________________________
 From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2016 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "The root of all languages"
 

Absence of evidence is not *proof* of absence.

But if you've been looking unsuccessfully  for evidence, absence of
evidence can be very good evidence of absence.

JL.



On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 3:08 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:      American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:      W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "The root of all languages"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> GSN: There's no evidence of bandanas or jai alai cestas in Cro Magnon
> excavations. So there's that...
> LH: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
> WB: Yes, we have no bandanas.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org