Adam and Eve
what language did Adam and Eve speak
I didn't mean that literally, I was just "fartin' around."
Possibly, oral tradition like one person suggested. I'm not sure where/when the first written language was practiced.
I think the earliest "paper" or otherwise were depending on world location: baked tablets, tree bark (sometimes in asia) like bamboo scrolls, papyrus in Egypt (I think it was made of leaves, not sure.)
Well, that's a hub idea there.
Wow dj - you actually believe that people in China used to speak the same language as people in England?
And they got forced to learn Chinese by God because someone built the Tower of Babel? I learn all sorts of new science from you.Time to do some homework, I guess.
I think the subject might be Ancient History, rather than fairy tales. You may have been looking in the wrong place.
Better yet, be web savvy and Google it.
Why single out the Chinese?Because Chinese history goes back longer than your fairy tail tower's supposed age, that is why.
Interesting that their history (and language) goes back longer than the age of the earth don't you think? Almost as though your bible got it wrong. I shall not wish you happy reading - it clear you don't bother.
Wait, the Chinese civilization ended? There's over a billion Chinese people who will probably disagree...
You didn't say, "ended up with," you said "ended in the elate 1300s."
Write is slowly.Okay, first of all, I'm not misquoting you; I'm accurately quoting you.
Second of all, my rightness or wrongness doesn't depend on whether I misquoted you or not.
Third of all, the first time I assumed that you'd made a typo of some kind, and thought I'd make a joke about it. Apparently it was an unsuccessful joke, since you didn't find it funny.
Fourth, me catching you in an ambiguously worded sentence doesn't make you a dummy, and I never implied that it does. (Perhaps you were rushed, and didn't have time to proofread. Happens to the best of us. Sometimes it's funny, like now.)
Finally, when you say a thing A began with X and ended with Y, (and Y is over and done with) it's not that much of a stretch to assume that you meant that A has ended. I could parse the sentence for you, and demonstrate that both semantically and syntactically, the sentence you wrote says that the Chinese civilization ended in the late 1300s CE, but as they say, if you have to explain the joke...
Okay, I'm gonna go get some Chinese food for dinner.
...And my parents said I'd never use my linguistics training....
Get a life she says.
that is the funniest thing you have said since the Italian incident. And you are so serious it is actually a funny/sad combo.
- well it should be language similar to that of apes...
lol, I must have been using the pocket translator. I thought she was just asking if he was up for it. But apparently the deed was already done
- Deborah Sextonposted 14 years ago
0Wow. Now you're talking to me as though you think I'm an idiot.
Let's go back: here's the sentence that inspired my original wisecrack:
"The Chinese civilization began in 5000 BCE with the Neolithic cultures and ended in the late 1300s CE with the Yuan Dynasty."
You've got a noun phase [the Chinese Civilization], the verb [began], and two prepositional phrases. The first one, [in 5000 BCE], modifies the verb, and tells when the beginning happened. The second one, [with the Neolithic cultures] modifies the whole verb phrase, denoting that the neolithic cultures were contemporary with the beginning of Chinese civilization. Then we have the conjunction [and], linking two independent clauses.
The second independent clause assumes the noun phrase [the Chinese culture], that is, it isn't explicitly stated that the Chinese culture is the thing that's doing the ending, but to repeat the noun phrase would be redundant.
It's just like the noun is assumed in the second clause in this sentence: "Jim sat on the porch in the morning, and sat on the sofa in the evening." Who sat on the sofa? Jim did. (What ended? Chinese culture did.)
Then we have the verb [ended] followed by another set of prep. phrases, to wit, [in the late 1300s CE] and [with the Yuan Dynasty]. The phrase [in the late 1300s CE] tells us when the Chinese culture ended, and the second prep. phrase, [with the Yuan Dynasty] contemporizes the ending of Chinese culture, the late 1300s CE and the Yuan Dynasty.
It could be argued that in the sentence we're analyzing, the Yuan Dynasty is said to be either beginning or ending (or merely just happening) in the late 1300s CE, but in that sentence, Chinese culture is definitely ending in the late 1300s CE.
Clearly you didn't intend to say that Chinese culture ended at all. I get that. (Especially since at one point you pointed out that the Yuan dynasty--the one you said Chinese culture ended with--was followed by the Ming Dynasty, which is also Chinese.) But the words you wrote absolutely say that Chinese culture ended in the late 1300s CE. Not 'reached its height in,' or 'stabilized in,' or 'arrived in,' or even 'stopped changing in,' but 'ended in.'
Are you trying to tell me that you meant to say that the Neolithic cultures are what ended in the late 1300s CE? 'Cos that's sooooo not what you typed.
My WWII example is syntactically identical to your original sentence about Chinese culture. If you imagine your original sentence means that Chinese culture is still going on somewhere, then you must agree that my example sentence means that WWII is still going on somewhere. If you agree that my sentence means that WWII stopped (or 'ended') in 1945, at the same time as Japan surrendered to the US, and that WWII is no longer taking place, then you must also agree that your original sentence means that Chinese culture stopped in the late 1300s CE, and is no longer in existence.
At this point, though, I'm not really interested in getting you to see how your original sentence says that Chinese culture ended, even though you didn't mean to say that it did. All I'm hoping for now is that others will see our exchange, and learn that 1) words mean things, 2) ambiguity leads to misunderstanding, 3) syntax and semantics are both useful and important, and 4) it's good to proofread.
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