Sociological Linguistics

[Nik Taylor]

"Patrick C. Ryan" wrote:
> As just the simplest example, a language which is unable to designate the
> plural form of a noun, is bound to introduce an *ambiguity* into a statement
> that a language which can does not exhibit.

True, but such a weakness tends to be counteracted by less ambiguity
elsewhere.  Japanese, for instance does not distinguish between singular
and plural, but it does distinguish between different levels of
honorifics, as well as cases.  Overall, languages tend to balance out,
they are *roughly equal* in complexity.

--
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was hanged." - Irish proverb
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