Simplicity of English

[Salikoko Mufwene]

I am afraid this discussion on the simplicity of language is proceeding on
some
assumptions that are disputable, including the following:

1) the starting point for everybody learning Chinese, Japanese, English,
French, etc. as a second language is the same. How come? I think that
difficulties in acquiring a second or umpteenth language vary depending on
one's linguistic background. I doubt that a Korean-speaker learning Japanese
has the same kinds of problems as an English-speaker doing the same, or that a
Thai-speaker and an English-speaker learning Chinese have the same kinds of
difficulties. I know English is very difficult. Even after living in the USA,
in full immersion for over 20 years, my English is far from being flawless. I
have a terrible problem with articles and pluralization (when can you omit
them--although I researched the subject matter). For the longest, I thought
that French omitted articles less often than English. Last May, I stumbled on
an official pamphlet in which bare nouns were more common than I had expected.
(Well, French needs some thawing every time I visit France.)

2) Second-language acquisition and first-language acquisition proceed the same
way. Well the communicative needs that the child wants to satisfy through
language are not of the same level of complexity and pressure to acquire the
language is not exerted the same way. A child doesn't follow the same language
acquisition program as  an adult.

3) A language is acquired whole sale, with the learner working out rules (as a
linguist would hypothesize) after exposure to so many data. Very doubtful.
There's a lot of deconstruction and reconstruction going on in the piecemeal
process of acquisition.

Etc, etc.  So, I think that the question of which language is more
complex/difficult to acquire--and in what respect?--may not be answered in the
way this debate is proceeding.

Sali.


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Salikoko S. Mufwene                        s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
University of Chicago                      773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
Department of Linguistics
1010 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html
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