<MSGID_1=3A153=2F716.0_08a16fe0@fidonet.org>
processed: spam filter heuristic analysis disabled)
From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@erec.ru>

F2EP
Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?
on Monday, 29 of October, I read your message to alexander koryagin
about "Such/Fuel...  1."

   <skipped>

 ak>> Some people call them "mass nouns." Probably it is a better term.
 AH> FOWLER'S uses "count nouns" synonymously  with  "countable  nouns",
 AH> and "mass nouns" synonymously with  "uncountable  nouns".  In  both
 AH> cases I prefer the second alternative, however,  because  it  seems
 AH> more intuitive to me. Some folks may prefer the  first  alternative
 AH> because it requires less typing on their part. OTOH, you  may  lose
 AH> half your audience if you expect them to look it up.... ;-)

   As for me, it seems to me that "mass noun" gives a good idea that the
noun means something uncertain. Indeed "sugar,"  for  instance,  a  very
good example why it can be called "mass noun." I  see  that  when  sugar
means a mass, and I don't use the indefinite article.

 ak>> Human brain is a strange thing. We spend years  on  learning,  and
 ak>> think that it  is  difficult,  but  a  two-year-old  child  speaks
 ak>> perfectly well, and nobody teaches him. ;-)

 AH> Young children are eager to learn, and their brains are growing  at
 AH> a phenomenal rate. The adults around them may  not  think  of  what
 AH> they're doing as "teaching".

   Why they should think so if they indeed do not teach? If they  exhort
the child "say mommy, say daddy" it doesn't mean they teach.  They  just
ask. 

 AH> Human beings, however, are social creatures. Awhile  before  babies
 AH> learn to speak they go through a stage where they  experiment  with
 AH> using various sounds... typically described as "goo goo, ga ga"  or
 AH> "babbling". They might be saying "Have a good day!" in Sanskrit  or
 AH> "The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on
 AH> the other two sides" in Greek or "the Lord created the heavens  and
 AH> the earth" in Hebrew... but if their  parents  don't  understand  a
 AH> word of these languages they'll probably remain silent.

   The most remarkable thing - they have dreams where they meet  with  a
lot of people. And in this dream world they interact not with words  but
with thoughts.  It  is  not  necessary  have  a  real  tongue  to  start
communicating with people. The tongue, however will be in  use  when  it
will be ready for using. . So, in short, the more dreams have a  child
in his native language the more quickly he starts to  understand  people
and then speak.

   <skipped>

 ak>> And, it seems to me, the more we live the more soon children start
 ak>> to speak. 
   <skipped>
 AH> later! Today's kids have advantages Dallas & I never  had.  But  we
 AH> grew up in an era when almost  everyone  around  us  was  a  native
 AH> speaker of English. I understand  why  the  folks  from  the  local
 AH> greengrocery try to pluralize "broccoli" even  though  it's  plural
 AH> already, yet fail to pluralize other  nouns.  Plurals  are  treated
 AH> differently in Chinese. Learning a new language isn't so easy after
 AH> the first few years of life because  the  neurological  connections
 AH> required tend to develop much more slowly.... :-)

   I pnone to think that children acceleration connected with  the  fact
that now they  live  among  words.  I  mean  that  TV  sets,  radio  are
constantly turned on. That's why children dreams are far more  saturated
than were ours in their age.

[...If a person barks at people he lives as a dog, too]
Bye Ardith!
Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
fido7.english-tutor 2012 



--- ifmail v.2.15dev5.4
 * Origin: Demos online service (2:5020/400)