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I seem to remember reading something about how English has one of the highest, if not the highest information to syllable ratio. I think that might give clues a

I seem to remember reading something about how English has one of the highest, if not the highest information to syllable ratio. I think that might give clues as to its ubiquity.

rvense 11y ago
You may have read that, but it's wrong. Actually, I think it qualifies as both wrong and not even wrong: 1. No two linguists would be able to agree on a definition of 'the amount' of information in a sentence. 2. Even for some arbitrary measure of information, it would depend on what was being said. Are we talking about banter between two friends meeting in the street, or a university lecture? 3. The idea that English is special for linguistic reasons is just wrong. It's a language like any other. They all have their quirks.
cbd1984 11y ago
Utter nonsense.
e2daipi 11y ago
I believe that you are referring to this[0] study. It has since been published (2011), though it's not openly accessible. Page 8 of a presentation by the author[1] shows that out of 7 languages (Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, German, English, and Mandarin) English is the second most information dense language, Mandarin being the most. Spanish is characterised by a fast rate of low-density syllables. A Spanish to English comparison (eye-balling) would be that Spanish is spoken at a rate of 7.8 syllables per second vs 6.2 for English (≈ 22.9% faster). (Spanish compared as a lot of comments are referencing its simplicity) English, compared in the referenced study, achieves the highest information rate, is spoken at a moderate-slow speed with a high information density. [0] http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/fulltext/pellegrino/pellegrino_to%20appear_language.pdf http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/fulltext/pellegrino/pellegri... [1] http://neukom.dartmouth.edu/docs/pellegrino-presentation-dartmouth2012.pdf http://neukom.dartmouth.edu/docs/pellegrino-presentation-dar...

I seem to remember reading something about how English has one of the highest, if not the highest information to syllable ratio. I think that might give clues as to its ubiquity.

rvense 11y ago

You may have read that, but it's wrong. Actually, I think it qualifies as both wrong and not even wrong: 1. No two linguists would be able to agree on a definition of 'the amount' of information in a sentence. 2. Even for some arbitrary measure of information, it would depend on what was being said. Are we talking about banter between two friends meeting in the street, or a university lecture? 3. The idea that English is special for linguistic reasons is just wrong. It's a language like any other. They all have their quirks.

cbd1984 11y ago

Utter nonsense.

e2daipi 11y ago

I believe that you are referring to this[0] study. It has since been published (2011), though it's not openly accessible. Page 8 of a presentation by the author[1] shows that out of 7 languages (Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, German, English, and Mandarin) English is the second most information dense language, Mandarin being the most. Spanish is characterised by a fast rate of low-density syllables. A Spanish to English comparison (eye-balling) would be that Spanish is spoken at a rate of 7.8 syllables per second vs 6.2 for English (≈ 22.9% faster). (Spanish compared as a lot of comments are referencing its simplicity) English, compared in the referenced study, achieves the highest information rate, is spoken at a moderate-slow speed with a high information density. [0] http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/fulltext/pellegrino/pellegrino_to%20appear_language.pdf http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/fulltext/pellegrino/pellegri... [1] http://neukom.dartmouth.edu/docs/pellegrino-presentation-dartmouth2012.pdf http://neukom.dartmouth.edu/docs/pellegrino-presentation-dar...