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   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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