6 ms·

Very misleading headline. The exact word "huh?" does not exist in every language, it's more that every language has a word that functions like the English langu

Very misleading headline. The exact word "huh?" does not exist in every language, it's more that every language has a word that functions like the English language word "huh". This is like saying every language has a word for yes. It's pretty obvious.

ColinWright 6y ago
Well, except that not every language has a word for "yes". If in doubt, search elsewhere in the thread.
- chadlavi 6y ago
  Thanks for the 100% HN-style "whatabout" nitpick that's completely beside the point of my comment! It has advanced the conversation and enriched all our lives.
  - kojeovo 6y ago
    That one point kinda nullifies your point. Given that yes and no don't exist in all languages, it's interesting that "huh" does and the article is not misleading at all.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    Take the beam out of your own eye maybe?
  - ColinWright 6y ago
    OK, well, let's reply more "in depth" to your comment. > Very misleading headline. It's hard to know what a better headline would be. It does cover quite well what the content of the original paper is asserting, and while it's not exact that the utterance we transcribe as "huh" exists as exactly that in all human languages, nevertheless, they cover that question in the paper, and the sense of their conclusions is fairly well conveyed by this headline, even if it's not absolutely precisely true. > The exact word "huh?" does not exist in every language, it's more that every language has a word that functions like the English language word "huh". The original paper seems to be saying more than what you are asserting here. Yes, there is something of that, and in places it's not entirely clear exactly what they're asserting in that regard, but even so, there is something in the research. It would be interesting to see people try to build on the research rather than just saying "Well, it's rubbish, isn't it. Clearly wrong." > This is like saying every language has a word for yes. It's pretty obvious. Do you think it's obvious that every word has a language for "Yes"? If so, that's why research is needed, because what people think is obvious isn't always true, and this claim is one of them. Not all languages have a word for "Yes".
JoeAltmaier 6y ago
They did this research in pursuit of an Ig Noble Prize, remember. Its supposed to be interesting and useless.
zanderwohl 6y ago
There are very few words that exist across all languages. In Mandarin, for example, there are no words that map well to "yes" and "no" in English. Words like colors rarely have precise equivalents between language families. Languages are far more diverse than most Anglophones know, so this is actually a very interesting hypothesis.

ColinWright 6y ago

Well, except that not every language has a word for "yes". If in doubt, search elsewhere in the thread.

chadlavi 6y ago
Thanks for the 100% HN-style "whatabout" nitpick that's completely beside the point of my comment! It has advanced the conversation and enriched all our lives.
- kojeovo 6y ago
  That one point kinda nullifies your point. Given that yes and no don't exist in all languages, it's interesting that "huh" does and the article is not misleading at all.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  Take the beam out of your own eye maybe?
- ColinWright 6y ago
  OK, well, let's reply more "in depth" to your comment. > Very misleading headline. It's hard to know what a better headline would be. It does cover quite well what the content of the original paper is asserting, and while it's not exact that the utterance we transcribe as "huh" exists as exactly that in all human languages, nevertheless, they cover that question in the paper, and the sense of their conclusions is fairly well conveyed by this headline, even if it's not absolutely precisely true. > The exact word "huh?" does not exist in every language, it's more that every language has a word that functions like the English language word "huh". The original paper seems to be saying more than what you are asserting here. Yes, there is something of that, and in places it's not entirely clear exactly what they're asserting in that regard, but even so, there is something in the research. It would be interesting to see people try to build on the research rather than just saying "Well, it's rubbish, isn't it. Clearly wrong." > This is like saying every language has a word for yes. It's pretty obvious. Do you think it's obvious that every word has a language for "Yes"? If so, that's why research is needed, because what people think is obvious isn't always true, and this claim is one of them. Not all languages have a word for "Yes".

JoeAltmaier 6y ago

They did this research in pursuit of an Ig Noble Prize, remember. Its supposed to be interesting and useless.

zanderwohl 6y ago

There are very few words that exist across all languages. In Mandarin, for example, there are no words that map well to "yes" and "no" in English. Words like colors rarely have precise equivalents between language families. Languages are far more diverse than most Anglophones know, so this is actually a very interesting hypothesis.