That's true of all languages.
I think those two in particular, at least for philosophy. German, too.
They're historical relics. This happens to all scripts and orthographies that I can think if, even Indian ones, which are infinitely more rational than European ones: phonology continues to evolve, leaving script behind.
Again, there's nothing particularly English about this. Each language is its own worldview, and contains words that have no equivalent in others. Languages that spread for political reasons, such as English, Spanish, Arabic, Sanskrit, absorb a lot of vocabulary from the autochthonous languages of the regions they invade, but any language has this capacity.
Travel a bit. This is just the way of the world.
That's true of all languages.
Disclaimer: I am not a linguistic expert.
English has considerably more words than any other language, due largely to its creation by and association with an energetic, enterprising nation of explorers, traders, settlers, and colonizers, which brought English into contact with an incomparable variety of linguistic influences. A lot of its words denote a variety of concepts.
It is also consequential that English is the primary language of six nations with large populations which have historically accepted immigrants and visitors providing another incomparable variety of linguistic influences.
English is said to have more than a million words. It's also true that this is consistent with the knowledge that is being created in English all over the world.
However, the ratio between the number of words and the number of concepts is not always 1:1. It may slightly vary due to morphological variations due to allomorphy, ano semantic phenomena viz., synonymy, polysemy, homophony and homonymy.
They're historical relics. This happens to all scripts and orthographies that I can think if, even Indian ones, which are infinitely more rational than European ones: phonology continues to evolve, leaving script behind.
Again, there's nothing particularly English about this. Each language is its own worldview, and contains words that have no equivalent in others. Languages that spread for political reasons, such as English, Spanish, Arabic, Sanskrit, absorb a lot of vocabulary from the autochthonous languages of the regions they invade, but any language has this capacity.
Travel a bit. This is just the way of the world.
I think those two in particular, at least for philosophy. German, too.
Disclaimer: I am not a linguistic expert.
English has considerably more words than any other language, due largely to its creation by and association with an energetic, enterprising nation of explorers, traders, settlers, and colonizers, which brought English into contact with an incomparable variety of linguistic influences. A lot of its words denote a variety of concepts.
It is also consequential that English is the primary language of six nations with large populations which have historically accepted immigrants and visitors providing another incomparable variety of linguistic influences.
English is said to have more than a million words. It's also true that this is consistent with the knowledge that is being created in English all over the world.
However, the ratio between the number of words and the number of concepts is not always 1:1. It may slightly vary due to morphological variations due to allomorphy, ano semantic phenomena viz., synonymy, polysemy, homophony and homonymy.
Do you think that the quality and appreciation of language as a communication and/or an art form will ultimately decline in the future?
Do you think that language will become homogenized due to mass communication to the point that we will all eventually speak the same language?
