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Re: java software naming question

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On 1/7/2013 9:57 PM, Roedy Green wrote:
> I am constrained by English to specify the flavour of genitals of the
> coffee maker even though it is completely irrelevant to the process of
> making coffee.  That I call obsession with gender.

The proper way to put it is that English lacks a third-person singular 
gender-neutral personal pronoun (quite a mouthful). Grammatical gender 
is a relatively common concept (pervasive in the Indo-European tree in 
particular), and appears to be quite universal for most agglutinative 
languages.

> English has another obsession.  I discovered it when I learned
> Esperanto which is even more obsessed.  TIME.  You can't talk about
> anything happening without specifying past, present, future. You can
> though say that something habitually happens, without specifying when.

It's not an obsession, strictly speaking. Often times, there exists a 
form where one inflection is the default; this is the notion of 
grammatical marking. If we consider gender for a moment, if I were to 
discuss an actor, that tends to refer to an unknown person who may be 
male or female, despite "actor" being a male version of the term. Only 
if I use the female version "actress" would I definitely be referring to 
a female; the female version is marked (it conveys additional 
information). Similarly, tense in English can be unmarked: if I say "I 
work for a living", that is actually ambiguous about time (it implies 
that it happens on a consistent basis, but is ambivalent about if I am 
presently in an action or not); compare that to "I am working for a living."

You may complain abut it being an obsession, but grammar and redundancy 
in agreement do serve a useful purpose in that it allows for information 
to be gleaned better from partial sources. Consider instead the trouble 
of trying to work out what's happening in this sentence: "And when he 
saw that he prevailed not against him..." There are two people A and B, 
both male, and it requires a lot of context to work out if it should be 
A/A/B or if it should be A/B/A.

> Esperanto is like English in its concern with precise tense, gender
> and plurality.  It has some other obsessions of its own, roughly
> equivalent to direct/indirect object though it has many other uses.

Esperanto is effectively a creole of various Indo-European languages, 
and can be loosely described as speaking Latin words in a Slavic accent 
with a basically Indo-European grammar system. English has a peculiarly 
weak grammar (given its history) as a result of several invasions of its 
islands by peoples from different regions of Europe.

> I suppose Mandarin might become the next interlanguage as English
> fades.  Bahasa Indonesia was an early attempt at an interlanguage
> devised by traders moving between thousands of islands. It is easy to
> pronounce, and has a  relatively simple grammar.

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, which is very difficult to master 
for those whose language trees are not tonal, and its orthographic 
complexity makes English's mess look simple. Given the pride many 
Chinese have in having a hard-to-learn language, I doubt that Mandarin 
Chinese will become a working lingua franca in the future.

-- 
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not 
tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth

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java software naming question mcheung63@gmail.com - 2013-01-07 01:11 -0800
  Re: java software naming question "Aryeh M. Friedman" <Aryeh.Friedman@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 01:21 -0800
  Re: java software naming question "Aryeh M. Friedman" <Aryeh.Friedman@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 01:26 -0800
  Re: java software naming question Muco <muco@nomail.com> - 2013-01-07 20:38 +1100
    Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 11:12 -0800
  Re: java software naming question Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2013-01-07 07:03 -0800
    Re: java software naming question "Aryeh M. Friedman" <Aryeh.Friedman@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 07:08 -0800
    Re: java software naming question Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-01-07 08:34 -0800
      Re: java software naming question Magnus Warker <magnus@mailinator.com> - 2013-01-07 18:26 +0100
        Re: java software naming question markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-01-07 10:54 -0800
          Re: java software naming question "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-01-07 19:41 +0000
            Re: java software naming question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2013-01-07 17:13 -0500
              Re: java software naming question Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-01-07 18:44 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-07 19:37 -0800
        Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-07 19:33 -0800
          Re: java software naming question Mark <i@dontgetlotsofspamanymore.invalid> - 2013-01-08 09:39 +0000
            Re: java software naming question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-01-08 20:26 -0500
              Re: java software naming question Mark <i@dontgetlotsofspamanymore.invalid> - 2013-01-09 09:32 +0000
                Re: java software naming question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-01-09 18:41 -0500
                Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-09 16:23 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Mark <i@dontgetlotsofspamanymore.invalid> - 2013-01-10 09:44 +0000
                Re: java software naming question lipska the kat <"nospam at neversurrender dot co dot uk"> - 2013-01-10 10:16 +0000
                Re: java software naming question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-01-12 17:07 -0500
                Re: java software naming question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-01-12 17:03 -0500
  Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 11:11 -0800
    Re: java software naming question lipska the kat <lipskathekat@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-01-07 19:48 +0000
    Re: java software naming question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-01-07 18:56 -0500
      Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 16:05 -0800
  Re: java software naming question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-01-07 18:55 -0500
  Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-07 18:04 -0800
    Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 18:33 -0800
      Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-07 19:57 -0800
        Re: java software naming question Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-01-07 20:11 -0800
        Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-07 23:05 -0600
          Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 09:40 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 11:18 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2013-01-09 11:59 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 23:20 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Stuart <DerTopper@web.de> - 2013-01-10 09:32 +0100
              Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-10 01:09 -0600
            Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-09 23:59 -0600
              Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 23:36 -0800
        Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-07 21:46 -0800
      Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-07 21:58 -0600
        Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-08 00:19 -0800
        Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-08 00:22 -0800
          Re: java software naming question "Aryeh M. Friedman" <Aryeh.Friedman@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 00:30 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 09:41 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 10:51 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-09 23:27 -0600
          Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 07:07 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-08 09:31 -0600
              Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 07:36 -0800
          Re: java software naming question Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-01-08 08:47 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Stuart <DerTopper@web.de> - 2013-01-08 21:56 +0100
              Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 13:04 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2013-01-08 14:14 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 15:19 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-01-08 16:22 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Mark <i@dontgetlotsofspamanymore.invalid> - 2013-01-09 09:34 +0000
              Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 09:50 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-01-09 10:10 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 10:49 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-01-08 20:37 -0500
        Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-08 00:26 -0800
          Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 07:12 -0800
            Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-08 09:27 -0600
              Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 07:32 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 09:55 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-01-09 12:53 -0800
                Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 23:37 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-01-08 08:50 -0800
          Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-08 09:26 -0600
            Re: java software naming question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-01-09 09:59 -0800
              Re: java software naming question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-01-09 23:31 -0600
    Re: java software naming question "Aryeh M. Friedman" <Aryeh.Friedman@gmail.com> - 2013-01-08 00:24 -0800
  Re: java software naming question johnjagu25@gmail.com - 2013-01-08 08:39 -0800

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