Aymara's time metaphor reversed? Yahgan says....

[Salinas17 at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/15/06 12:48:51 PM, mark at polymathix.com writes:
<< Without the hypercritical assessment arising from antequated structuralist 
bean counting, kids are free to produce any translation that has the right 
statistical properties >>

Just a small comment regarding terminology.  Strictly speaking, translating 
or any other analysis based on 'statistical properties' would be just as much 
'structural' as looking for 'contrast, complementation, and structure.'  
Statistical analysis simply creates a different picture of structure, not something 
other than structure.

The factors that form either of those types of structurings, on the other 
hand, are where we get to the 'function' of language -- what ends it serves, 
specifically and universally -- which might be the main reason why it is even 
worth studying in the first place.

Regards,
Steve Long