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How deep you are involved with Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Joel Pina Diaz — Sun, 17 May 2020 04:29:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: How deep you are involved with Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Poster: Joel Pina Diaz

Among several, the neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP) pre-training, called Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or "BERT", is changing your models to search either from ranking and/or featured snippets cracking your queries mostly in US English but near future will add several languages (a market open for translators).

"One of the biggest challenges in natural language processing (NLP) is the shortage of training data. Because NLP is a diversified field with many distinct tasks, most task-specific datasets contain only a few thousand or a few hundred thousand human-labeled training examples. However, modern deep learning-based NLP models see benefits from much larger amounts of data, improving when trained on millions, or billions, of annotated training examples. To help close this gap in data, researchers have developed a variety of techniques for training general purpose language representation models using the enormous amount of unannotated text on the web (known as pre-training). The pre-trained model can then be fine-tuned on small-data NLP tasks like question answering and sentiment analysis, resulting in substantial accuracy improvements compared to training on these datasets from scratch..."

Language understanding remains an ongoing challenge and we are in the trend to ride up...

Full information in the following link (Google A.I. Blog): [url removed]

Universal Language for the Human Race. | Humanity is too varied

Alexander C. Thomson — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:54:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Universal Language for the Human Race.
Poster: Alexander C. Thomson
Post title: Humanity is too varied

Years ago, if I ever thought about the Dutch, I assumed they were rather like the Germans in speech, habit and other matters. At that stage of my thinking, I'd probably have happily gone along with the idea that the Dutch and Germans could once again share a common language as they did a millennium and a half ago.

Then I started learning Dutch and became obsessed with what set it apart from German (which I’d learned previously). Suddenly, a set of concrete, absolute notions formed in my head that the German Mind and the Dutch Mind were actually poles apart and had developed their divergent idioms to reflect that.

Then I arrived in the Netherlands and started going down to see my fiancée at weekends in Zeeland. I was pretty proud of myself for falteringly mastering Zeêuws and flaunted it at the metropolitan Dutch: look, here are people who are spiritually and culturally and in other ways so different from you that their language is quite distinct and expresses sentiments that haven’t crossed your minds, nor do they have much use for some of the distinctions and nuances you lot make.

Then I spent rather longer down in Zeeland and realised that each island was its own thought-world and that the dialects that had sounded (not just phonologically, but idiomatically) so identical to me as a newcomer were so far apart that they were characteristic of different ways of life, too. (Reading up on their history, in parallel, confirmed this impression.)

I’m now at the stage of considering myself an honorary son of my now wife’s home town and when we’re back visiting there, I chuckle with her at the odd expressions and out-of-place concepts of folk a few miles down the dike in one of the other towns on the same island. I’m starting to pick out family idiolects, too: between my in-laws and other townsfolk, and even between individual branches of the in-laws.

And yet folk with no particular familiarity with the (non-English) Germanic languages are sometimes found blithely assuming that the Dutch, Germans and even Danes and Norwegians are linguistically (and in other ways) pretty similar — a misapprehension typically based on having heard jetsetting representatives of each of those nations speaking a similar kind of (British TV idiom-informed) learner’s English with good fluency in strictly-bound contexts. Such notions of commonality do not survive contact with the subjects’ wonderfully varied home environments, brought out to the full if you hear them speaking their own dialect of Flemish/Dutch/German/Danish/Norwegian on a visit to their folks. And just look at the worlds-apart diversity of scenery in this corner of north-western Europe alone, and ponder what kind of lives their forefathers led in those differing districts, to realise why their spiritual, cultural, historical and all other distinctive human concepts come in many shades.

No, there will be no reversal of the confusion of Babel. Mankind is far too determined by his immediate climatic, terrain, cultural, historical and social circumstances to be able to think in universal idioms worldwide. Montesquieu was an Enlightenment giant and progressive but saw and explained this limitation quite categorically. The artificial languages are wonderful, Esperanto being the finest of them, but there will never be a world people with its heritage encapsulated in a single language whose words are loaded with shared experiences and common frames of reference.

[Edited at 2012-12-10 21:08 GMT]

Universal Language for the Human Race. | Exactly!

Oksana Weiss — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:09:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Universal Language for the Human Race.
Poster: Oksana Weiss
Post title: Exactly!

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
Thanks to the pride of the inhabitats of Babel, we all make a living today... They talked a universal language did they??! [/quote]
I wondered who would be the first to mention the Tower of Babel.
However, if there is to be a universal language, it will be English, which is spoken by ~2 billion people, and thanks to which most of us make our living:)
PS Just noticed that the topic is 8 years old. So much for another endeavour to create an artificial universal language!

[Edited at 2012-04-16 08:16 GMT]

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Seamos sensatos...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Seamos sensatos...

El insigne Dr. Freud reconoció que la humanidad dio un gran paso hacia la civilización cuando los hombres sustituyeron la injuria a la lanza...

Lamentablemente vivimos en un mundo cruel, en el que existen tanto la violencia, como las guerras, la estupidez y los malnacidos, prueba de ello es que existen los significantes necesarios para expresar dichos significados... ¡¡y además en muchos idiomas!!... pero el prescincidir de dicho vocabulario no hace que desaparezcan o extingan tan crueles realidades... como el hecho innegable para mí de que el falso buenrollismo que por aquí abunda no consigue enmascarar la cruel realidad de que aquí somos todos competidores de un modo más civilizado que despiadado, pero competidores a fin de cuentas...

Sobre el tema de que a una humanidad en la que abundan la violencia, la corrupción, la estupidez, la necedad, y otros cientos de males, le pueda ofender el uso público de "gilipollas" (por ejemplo), por cierto, menos machista y sexista que el "con" francés que toma su nombre del vocablo que designaba otrora al sexo femenino tiene el insigne humorista argentino "Pinti" un monólogo excelente que te recomiendo escucharas... y si quieres se lo censuras a tus sobrinos hasta que estimes que han alcanzado la edad discernir los valores del fondo y la forma que en el caso de Pinti son soberbios por mucho que use y tal vez abuse de las voces malsonantes...

Yo personalmente sigo siendo adepto de la escuela de Palo Alto... y me desagradan profundamente las disonancias entre los discursos analógico y digital, por lo que intento expresarme del modo, al menos, más claro posible.

(Y me encantan Pinti y Eduardo Mendoza, por ej.).

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Demos gracias

Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:11:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Post title: Demos gracias

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
A mi humilde modo de entender no crean valor añadido... la "inteligencia" me indica que pues que son algo ineficiente... [/quote]
Si te refieres a que los buenos usos de urbanidad y cortesía no crean valor añadido, me alegro de que la mayoría de la humanidad no piense como tú. :-) Insisto en que existe un elevado riesgo de confundir carácter con mala educación. Lo he visto en muchísimas personas a lo largo de mi vida. ¡Salud!

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Prescindible...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:28:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Prescindible...

As above mentioned...

A mi humilde modo de entender no crean valor añadido... la "inteligencia" me indica que pues que son algo ineficiente...

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Educación

Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:11:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Post title: Educación

La quinta acepción del DRAE para «educar» me parece muy acertada:
[quote]
5. tr. Enseñar los buenos usos de urbanidad y cortesía.[/quote]
Se puede decir más alto, pero no más claro.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | ¿Educación?

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: ¿Educación?

Tengo 2 carreras... educado estoy... que decida de un modo consciente y voluntario prescindir de los supuestos "buenos modales" es otra cosa...

Me importa mucho más el fondo que la forma... y vistos algunos rebuznos con modales exquisitos (y me refiero a los que han originado el topic... por si las susceptibilidad cotizase también en bolsa)... prefiero quedarme como estoy...

Se puede hacer uso de vocablos malsonantes sin acritud alguna... y militar en la brigada anti-eufemismos...

[Edited at 2012-04-15 18:30 GMT]

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Claro

Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:52:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Post title: Claro

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
Y sí... ¡¡me encanta el uso de las palabras supuestamente "malsonantes" y en mi habla hago un uso habitual de las mismas!![/quote]
Exacto. En el habla. Como todo hijo de vecino.

Lo que siempre espero de una persona inteligente es que sepa distinguir entre carácter y mala educación.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Tan solo evidencio...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:24:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Tan solo evidencio...

Que si hay repetables particularidades lingüisticas entre las distintas hablas del Español que sí me parecen del todo respetables... de hecho algunas son incluso ejercidas por "carnales" míos...

Si te fijas los improperios antes mencionados, no van dirigidos a nadie en particular (y mucho menos a quienes no compartan mis ideas... libres son) ... sino si acaso al memo que motivó mi desquiciamiento original con la necedad de "text in English and Spanish to translate into Castillan and Catalan dialects" ...

En fin... ni soy sutil... ni se me da bien el sarcasmo... si el sentido británico de la ironía cotizase en bolsa... yo seguiría siendo muy pobre...

Y sí... ¡¡me encanta el uso de las palabras supuestamente "malsonantes" y en mi habla hago un uso habitual de las mismas!!

[Edited at 2012-04-15 16:30 GMT]

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Hay formas mejores de expresarse

Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:40:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Post title: Hay formas mejores de expresarse

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
"pinches güeyes méndigos pendejos"... es otro tema... [/quote]
Considero Isaac que las ideas y opiniones se pueden expresar de muchas formas, pero no así cuando estás hablando para un público desconocido y mundial. Ante todo deben imperar la cordialidad y el respeto a cualquier otra persona, por muy en desacuerdo que se esté.

Te ruego que reconsideres tu forma de expresar tus ideas. Y atención: pedir que se eviten las groserías y que se considere a las demás personas como mercedoras de respeto no es censurar a nadie. :-)

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | On flamand

Samuel Murray — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:25:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: On flamand

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
Is "flammand" meaningless for Dutch speakers? Or only for those unwilling to understand?[/quote]

Well, I had to google for it.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | ... Y en cuanto a mi desprecio por las CAT tools...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:11:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: ... Y en cuanto a mi desprecio por las CAT tools...

... Yo no obligo a nadie a no usarlas... ni le impongo a nadie su no utilización... si reivindicara mi derecho a no usarlas por cada anuncio que las exige... o que intenta vendermelos... igual no haría otra cosa... simplemente casi ya me hace hasta gracia la insistencia con la que se hace... será que no cumplen con los objetivos de ventas... en parte porque no se trata de herramientas ni mucho menos indispensables para efectuar nuestra labor... Ni yo soy menos traductor por no tener ningún CAT Tool en mi PC, por mucho que algunos intenten dejarlo sobre-entender excluyéndome de efecutar trabajos por ello...

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Repito :

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:06:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Repito :

escribir en "Latam", "los estimados" son no sé qué... en vez de "estimaciones" no es una "particularidad" del habla o uso de la lengua.. ¡¡ES ESCRIBIR MAL!!

También podemos legitimar la ablación femenina como se practica en el África subsahariana en nombre de eso tan bonito que son el respeto y las diferencias culturales... que la idiotez sea algo generalizado... no la convierte en algo inteligente...

Que mi abuelita que era méxicana y que en gloria esté me "apachara"... y les dijese a todos estos del tirón y sin comas :

"pinches güeyes méndigos pendejos"... es otro tema...

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | No doubt about it

neilmac — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:59:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: neilmac
Post title: No doubt about it

[quote]Samuel Murray wrote:

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
"We have text in English and Spanish that should be translated into Catalan and Castellano".[/quote]

Are you certain that a text written in Latin America for a Latin American audience would not contain any words, phrases or cultural references that would be meaningless to readers in Spain?
[/quote]

There is indeed a often a comprehension gap, and there are even differences in vocabulary usage between/among the L. Am countries. One of my Spanish clients started working with Argentina and Mexico and most of the misunderstandings and confusions that crop up are from the latter. My feeling/opinion is that the closer you get to the USA geographically, the less "Spanish" (which I understand as essentially Castilian) the living language becomes.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | No hay vuelta atrás

Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Post title: No hay vuelta atrás

Perdón Isaac pero me parece que protestar por la evolución de nuestro mercado como consecuencia de avances tecnológicos y la globalización no tiene mucho sentido.

La existencia de ayudas técnicas es algo ya normal en todas las profesiones. En nuestro caso, el ejemplo más prominente es el de las memorias de traducción. Usarlas o no usarlas no te hace más o menos traductor ni determina tu nivel de profesionalidad, por mucho que digáis aquéllos a los que no os gusta usarlas. Decir que uno es mejor traductor por hacer las traducciones con menos medios técnicos no estaría falto de gracia.

En cuanto a malos ejemplos de trabajos publicados en la web, todos los hemos visto y los vemos a diario, pero son fruto de un mundo globalizado que, por otro lado, encaja como anillo al dedo en los intereses de los traductores.

Personalmente pienso que no hay marcha atrás en cuanto a la tecnología ni en cuanto a la conformación del mercado. Todo traductor debe interiorizar este hecho constatado para adaptarse y participar de forma constructiva en este mercado.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Then...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:58:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Then...

... it shouldn't be named "Spanish" in the fist place!!! ... is "flammand" meaningless for Dutch speakers? or only for those unwilling to understand? ... I an pretty sure the whole posting was an excellent example of either idiocy or a Bogus posting!!

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Would Latin American Spanish be readily understood in Spain?

Samuel Murray — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:49:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Would Latin American Spanish be readily understood in Spain?

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
"We have text in English and Spanish that should be translated into Catalan and Castellano".[/quote]

Are you certain that a text written in Latin America for a Latin American audience would not contain any words, phrases or cultural references that would be meaningless to readers in Spain?

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | ... Para bestias...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:01:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: ... Para bestias...

... algunos de los "hechiceros de bata blanca" ... yo soy de los que prefiere automedicarse... es mi organismo y mi responsabilidad...

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Inevitable

Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 07:50:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Post title: Inevitable

Pienso que es inevitable que cuando uno se dedica profesionalmente a una rama del conocimiento humano se tope cada dos por tres con atrocidades.

Un impresor hallará mil cosas mal ajustadas en las revistas que lee todo el mundo y clamará al cielo al ver que los lectores no arrojan la revista con desdén a los pies del propietario del quiosco, un decorador experto sufrirá lo indecible entrando en las casas de sus conocidos, un médico estará aterrorizado por la automedicación o un abogado o economista se quedará pálido leyendo la prensa.

En la vida uno tiene que separar el grano de la paja, alegrarse por el grano y entender que, en cierto modo, sin la paja no hay tampoco grano. Protestar porque los trigales están llenos de paja es un ejercicio inútil, por no hablar de que la paja también sirve para alimentar a las bestias.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Furthermore...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 07:19:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Furthermore...

Es que que para mayor INRI... esos son los mismos "pofesionales" que luego se permiten evaluar mi trabajo... o reclutar al proofer que lo va a destrozar por no tener la menor idea del significado contenido en el texto original... y si la gente ocupa puestos sin tener ni idea de los conocimientos básicos que se le supone exige el puesto a desempeñar... tampoco es mi problema, ni estoy yo para alfabetizar a nadie...

[Edited at 2012-04-15 07:25 GMT]

[Edited at 2012-04-15 10:21 GMT]

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | what is tyer?

fredliu — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:37:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: fredliu
Post title: what is tyer?

the following is the dialogue on a boat. when sailors tidy up mainsheet, they take out tyers, but what is tyer?
“Let’s have those tyers. Starboard locker. . . . Just by
your hand.” John found the bundle of tyers, like strips of broad tape.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Hagamos algo positivo

Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:06:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Post title: Hagamos algo positivo

Te animo a escribir a quien publicó el trabajo y explicarle los fundamentos básicos de la cuestión para que no haga el ridículo la próxima vez. Así contribuirás activamente a que la situación mejore.

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | "jefe de personal" != "experto en lo que está anunciando"

Neil Coffey — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:08:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: Neil Coffey
Post title: "jefe de personal" != "experto en lo que está anunciando"

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:
... Que alguien pida una traducción from "Spanish" into Catalan & Castillan "dialects" además que decía el original "job posting" puesto ahí (T.D.) por el "supuesto" lingüista experto...
[/quote]

Déjame compartir contigo un pequeño secreto del mundo real: en muchas disciplinas, se le encarga a administradores de proyectos, a jefes de personal etc, anunciar trabajos y puestos sin que dichas personas sepan cuales son los requisitos precisos que necesitan exigir (dicho de otra manera: sin que sepan de qué diablos están hablando...).

Tu crees que la mayoría de los administradores de proyectos de una empresa "X" tengan la menor idea sobre una diferencia técnica entre "idioma" y "dialecto" o el estátus técnico lingúïstico de lo que se denominaría "catalán" vs "español" vs "castellano" etc?

Universal Language for the Human Race. | Problems...

Neil Coffey — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:41:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Universal Language for the Human Race.
Poster: Neil Coffey
Post title: Problems...

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
Like the radicals attaching to the different carbon atoms in an organic compound, every word in this language should have provisions for extension to denote different shades of meaning of the same root word.
[/quote]

Obviously, many languages exhibit such a feature to *some* extent, e.g. via affixes that modify a word in a particular way. But you'll notice that natural languages have generally evolved to use such features fairly sparingly and not always terribly consistently.

If you did try to apply such an approach across the whole language, it's not clear what the global inventory of "shades of meaning" would actually be or if such a thing could even usefully exist.

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
why can't we invent a language understood by both man and machine.
[/quote]

Well, we obviously can do so in a limited way. And for specific tasks where particular machine input is required, we do invent what you might see as highly restricted subsets of languages. But...

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
All languages and the sub languages and dialects of the world have evolved "naturally". But why leave it to nature?
[/quote]

One key reason for leaving it to nature is that natural languages evolve in a way that is bound by how human thinking works with respect to the faculties involved in language. If we invent an artificial language, we might accidentally be doing a worse job than 'nature' because we may inadvertently introduce structures, logic etc that are actually more difficult to acquire naturally.

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
Why should there be two sets of vocabulary, one for the so called 'cultured-elite' and one for the plebeian where some words or phrases are termed as slangs and others not, when "shit" and "excrement" infact means the same thing.
[/quote]

Probably because it turns out that having words of different registers fulfills roles such as marking one's belonging to a particular group, conveying attitude etc. "Shit" and "excrament" actually don't refer to 'the same thing': the way in which these two words are interpreted by the brain are arguably quite different.

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
One may argue that some classical languages follow strict rules and are very "scientific".
[/quote]

In terms of their 'natural' form, there's no basis for such an argument. For example, there's no basis for nonsense claims such as "Latin was a very logical language".

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
Great languages of the world like English and Mandarin are spoken by billions of people. They evolved independently in two corners of the world and are hence poles apart in grammer and lexicon.
[/quote]

This depends on your point of view. All human languages share some very fundamental characteristics. To an alien visiting our planet, all human languages may well appear to them as simply "variants of the same thing".

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
may argue, why the total number of people speaking these language constitute roughly half the population of the universe
[/quote]

N.B. "planet Earth" != "universe"!!! (This is actually not a facetious comment: to what extent features of known natural human language are tied to the specific biology of human beings is a very open question. Would 'language' that evolved in life with different biology to that on earth necessarily share the same features as language evolved in terrestrial biology? Are there constraints on the possible forms of biology-- e.g. perhaps a replicating mechanism close to DNA is necessary or perhaps it can vary considerably-- that fundamentally constrain 'language'?)

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
Why are they so popular?
[/quote]

For sociological and geopolitical reasons and certainly little if anything to do with any linguistic feature of those languages.

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
If we talk of ONE WORLD we must also speak in ONE LANGUAGE, not shoved down through the throat of the people but accepted spontaneously throughout the world for its sheer efficiency.
[/quote]

How many natural languages a 'globalised' world can support is a very open question. However, the fact of the matter is that there has been a general trend towards fewer and fewer languages in any case as, for example, geographical boundaries have become less and less boundaries to social mobility. If your key worry is that there are 'too many languages', this problem may well actually solve itself naturally over time...

[quote]Syeda Tanbira Zaman wrote:
It will be difficult at first even to conceive such an idea or to orient our thinking around a language that will be
strictly scientific in structure.
[/quote]

I wonder how you'd even decide on what constituted "strictly scientific" and what didn't.

[Edited at 2012-04-14 15:44 GMT]

New Language Pair | Yes, and...

Stefan Blommaert — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:56:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: New Language Pair
Poster: Stefan Blommaert
Post title: Yes, and...

[quote]Gerard de Noord wrote:

Hi Christine,

I'm not surprised at all and I even think it's wise to mention it. I don't know anything about the job you're referring to but I can think of several good reasons to ask for a French translation for the Moroccan market. It might be a translation for a supermarket chain: they dont want translations that are slightly off for their customers. Or it might be a legal translation or a translation about Moroccan institutions.

Belgium and the Netherlands have officially declared that they speak and write the same language. That's a good thing for Dutch but it doesn't refrain Delhaize from exclusively using native Belgian translators to peddle their wares in Belgium.

Cheers,
Gerard [/quote]

..although there are fields in which these differences are almost inexistent (for example science and engineering), there are definitely fields where these differences are important (law, marketing,...), that is, where local customs and social aspects have to be taken into account.

In our case (into Dutch) this is not a new language pair, but a language variant. Same language (grammar and spelling rule), different details (for example differences in vocabulary or preferred use of vocabulary).

[Edited at 2012-04-14 13:58 GMT]

Universal Language for the Human Race. | PLAIN NONSENSE!!

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:16:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Universal Language for the Human Race.
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: PLAIN NONSENSE!!

... No language can exist without a social context... Esperanto failed because you cannot create and impose a language ex-nihilo... not only humans create languages... but we are created too (or at least our particular frame of mind) by the language context of our early childhood... "Universal language" thing sounds more like an approriate talk for a cult than for grown up linguists... Thanks to the pride of the inhabitats of Babel, we all make a living today... They talked a universal language did they??!

New Language Pair | Got a better explanation :

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: New Language Pair
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Got a better explanation :

... plain idiocy... & the dumbing down of the industry!!

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Cuecen habas en todas partes

neilmac — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:32:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: neilmac
Post title: Cuecen habas en todas partes

[quote]ISAAC PRADEL LEAL wrote:

... Que alguien pida una traducción from "Spanish" into Catalan & Castillan "dialects" ... [/quote]

... es algo parecido a lo que pasa hoy en día con mi inglés británico, que muchisimos norteamericanos perciben como un "variante" de su lengua "jefe", un poco chapado a la antigua o cursi, y tambien me saca de quicio.
Dichosos "pofesionales" hay debajo de cada piedra...

Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry? | Si a tí te parece normal...

ISAAC PRADEL LEAL — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:21:00 +0000

Forum: Artificial languages
Topic: Excess of "localization" or dumbing down of the industry?
Poster: ISAAC PRADEL LEAL
Post title: Si a tí te parece normal...

... Que alguien pida una traducción from "Spanish" into Catalan & Castillan "dialects" además que decía el original "job posting" puesto ahí (T.D.) por el "supuesto" lingüista experto... puedes cotizarle oyes... o ir juntos a que os lo miren... y escribir en "Latam", "los estimados" son no sé qué... en vez de "estimaciones" no es una "particularidad" del habla o uso de la lengua.. ¡¡ES ESCRIBIR MAL!! ... Al igual que resulta más fácil reconocer el "Ebonics" en algunos distritos escolares de L.A. (colmo de delirio), en vez de alfabetizar a la gente... que es algo que exige inversiones...

En fin, "localiza" lo que quieras... muy libre eres... como en Alabama son libres de no alfabetizar a sus niños / escuincles adecuadamente...