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The Evolution of Language

Posted by samzenpus on from the everything-can-be-measured dept.

TaeKwonDood writes "We all know language has evolved but mathematicians are trying to take how it has changed in the past to predict what it will be like in the future." From the article: "Mathematical analysis of this linguistic evolution reveals that irregular verb conjugations behave in an extremely regular way -- one that can yield predictions and insights into the future stages of a verb's evolutionary trajectory," says Lieberman, a graduate student in applied mathematics in Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and an affiliate of Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. "We measured something no one really thought could be measured, and got a striking and beautiful result.""

5 of 528 comments (clear)

  1. That's Sick by pipingguy · · Score: -1, Troll

    N/T

  2. 1984 by borgasm · · Score: 0, Troll

    double plus ungood ?

  3. Shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Rape Dead Dog Fuck Nigger

  4. Re:Of course it's all about the verbs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    It's fuck that, suck this, screw that. ...that's all anyone thinks about.


    Fucking and so on is all niggers think about, anyway.

    And they are really influencing the language, yo. Did them scholars be accountin' for that? The destructive nigger influence on language, y'know whut I'm sayin' holmes?
  5. Re:The Best One Recently by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You should say I can't fucking.

    That should be "I can't fuck." A gerund (fucking) used in this way makes no sense. Even considered as a present participle and not as a gerund, "I can't fucking" still makes no grammatical sense. You could inject the verb to be in there to make it grammatical, but then you'd be changing the sentence.

    Also, gerunds have a much broader range of use than most high school English teachers ever stop to consider, something that linguists are still unravelling.

    I guess I'd find your little anecdote funnier if I actually could believe that an English teacher said the things you attribute to him. (And if he really said that, and he really taught English as a subject, as a parent I'd be howling for his blood. Not because I find the F-word offensive, but because I can't tolerate that level of ignorance.) At least you didn't claim it was a verbatim quote.