How many times can one word be used in a sentence?

I am at a conference which had tons of "pre-readings." Here is one sentence from a chapter of a book...and I have most definitely decided not to read the whole book!

"In the next circle are the interaction (sic), the interactional conditions that arise from each interactant's interactional stance, an interactional context that involves the degree of alignment preceived by each interactant, and the developmental aspects of interaction."

I hope you get what he meant better than I did!

Now, in spite of Bob's doubts about its efficacy, if this had been written in BE, as it surely could have been, it would have been clear, understandable and probably more concise.

Frankly I believe that all academics who write this kind of nonsense should be sentenced to a spell of reading and translating the turgid and arcane writings of fellow adademics into readable prose!

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
Now, in spite of Bob's doubts about its efficacy, if this had been written in BE, as it surely could have been, it would have been clear, understandable and probably more concise.

I don't doubt that.

My doubt comes from the idea that having learned BE you are in any way equiped to communicate. Cetrtainly your writing will be comprehensible to me but mine, which uses vastly more than 850 words won't be comprehensible to you.

I haven't looked at what those 850 words are but I can imagine an exchange along the lines of

"Excuse me, where is the station please?"
"Right, you head on down the high street, cut across the road when you're by the pelican opisite the Woolies. Then keep right on past the police station and hang a right at the junction. Then you want the third left..watch out though it's really just a tiny alley and you might miss it..."

"Thank you. Excuse me, where is the station,please?"

As I said before you might be able to express most ideas in your limited vocabulary and grammar but unless the person replying also knows the form of English you are using you won't understand the answer.

And if you don't understand the answer then there was no point in asking the question.

One way communication is as bad as no communication.

P.S. I agree 100% with your second sentence though.

*Expecting to feel very stupid when given the answer*

What's BE?

quote:

Originally posted by Cat:
*Expecting to feel very stupid when given the answer*

What's BE?

Not stupid, just away from the board for a few days.

The previous discussion is here.

quote:

I haven't looked at what those 850 words are but I can imagine an exchange along the lines of

I had exactly the same thoughts when I first looked at the concept since I, too, love the English language and use far more words than mere 850. Having said which, I was most surprised when I started to research and found out just how good is BE for communication. Have a look at the site and the examples (I've posted the link in the "links for linguophiles" section) and I feel sure that you, like I, will be surprised.

Your comment about one-way communication is obviously true, but the fact of the matter is that we (or most of us anyway) quickly recognise the liguistic ability of the person we are conversing with and modify our language to suit. Whether our communicant be foreign, ill-educated or just stupid, we seem to be able to do this almost instinctively and would soon cut out such slang and jargon expressions as "woolies", "hang a right" and "Pelican" once we realised we were speaking to a foreigner.

The competent speaker of BE will be able to convey his or her thoughts perfectly well and we, in turn, will be able to respond perfectly well. I doubt there's many words in Churchill's speeches that aren't in BE - and no English speaker had trouble understanding him!

Remember, too, that of the 5 million or so English words, very few speakers use more than around 0.5% on a regular basis.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Richard English,

quote:

Not stupid, just away from the board for a few days.

Thanks Bob

This is the first day I've been online properly since Thursday (busy weekend). The Rammstein gig on Fri was incredible - I wasn't sure at the time they went on sale whether I'd be well enough to go so I got tickets at the last minute on ebay (same as face value inc p&p).

I want to go again now - what a show. The pyrotechnics alone - wow. And unlike certain 'bands', it wasn't to cover up a lack of muscial talent .

Anyway, back to words </tangent>