XPost: alt.usage.english
From: naddy@mips.inka.de

On 2024-07-26, Steve Hayes  wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:41:13 -0700, HenHanna 
>>       The instance I remember most was when he (PTD) opined that Most
>>Chinese words consisted of 2 Chinese characters.

It's not wrong just because PTD said it.  Over on Language Log, the
eminent sinologist Victor Mair also keeps pointing out that the
Chinese thinking that a Chinese character/syllable equals a word
is just not true and that most of the Chinese lexicon is made from
a combinations of two morphemes and rendered in two characters.

> In his own field he had some useful information, but outside his field
> he could be very dogmatic about things that he simply got wrong.

But what _is_ PTD's area of actual expertise?  Writing systems, I
guess, supported by the fact that he co-edited a book on the topic?
Semitic languages, maybe--or am I already misled by my own total
ignorance there?

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de

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