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I'd say that most languages go into a much deeper level of detail than English does, by default.
by Gauge_Irrahphe 5y ago
I'd say that most languages go into a much deeper level of detail than English does, by default.
- pbourke 5y agoWhat do you mean by level of detail? That concepts are spelled out more explicitly? I think most languages and cultures have conceptual shortcuts. Every culture/language has their “Shaka, when the walls fell” from Star Trek (here I go with the conceptual shortcuts).
- Gauge_Irrahphe 5y agoI mean more like they seem to prefer spelling out the exact problem, instead of using a generic phrase, like "this solution has proven inadequate".
- tomcooks 5y ago? Which languages and in which contexts?
- freeflight 5y agoGendered articles and honorifics come to mind, that's where for example German has more "details" that afaik don't really exist in a comparable version in English, like duzen vs siezen.
- stan_rogers 5y agoArticles themselves are relatively rare (though they're a European areal feature, to the extent that they're added into some languages that otherwise wouldn't have them). Gender is another thing that isn't universal at all - and where it does exist, is more likely to distinguish between, say, long pointy things, humans, and non-flesh food than between masculine and feminine.
- Gauge_Irrahphe 5y agoNot like that. It's more about what amount of information you are expected to share in any given context vs. what would be seen as excessive, such as would you expect to hear "there was an accident" or "a valve broke and the cooling fluid spilled". You won't find things like this in a grammar book, it's kid of more like what bitrate the language aims for.
- Gauge_Irrahphe 5y agoAt the very least Indians, Chinese and Japanese complain about those, and English speakers who learn them face the opposite problem, at least with the latter two, so it isn't a native/non native problem.