I watched a couple of chapters of the TV series, Yes, Minister.
Here is a short cut of a discussion between the Minister and his adviser Sir. Humphrey. They are discussing the issue of nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union threat.
Minister (says): They probably certainly know (referring to the Soviet Union)
Sir Humphrey (replies): Yes, Minister, but they probably certainly know that you probably wouldn’t, they don’t certainly know that although you probably wouldn’t there’s no probability that you certainly would.
I find Humphrey's repply very funny just from a language perspective and regardless its actual meaning. The way English is allows Humphrey to say a quite long sentence using only two times one single verb (know) and building up the sentence just by fulfilling it with a brilliant play of 'would', 'certainly' and 'probably'. Sometimes I believe English is a Lego-like language and I love it!
I took deliberatly that sentence as an obviuos example of what I liked to bring to debate. A language like English is what I call a 'powerful' language. A language using few words and little declinations and conjugations, say little grammar, but able to accurately communicate both sophisticated technology and conceptual abstraction.
But on top of that, isn’t Humphrey’s talk very funny, anyway?
(Note: From what I've heard about chinese language it may be extremely powerful. Is it going to be another threat to the English-using Western powers?)
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hello Miquel !!! I never watched this TV series because in Argentine It is more common that the differents channels show north american series insted of british, there are very few that arrive to latin america. So if you want, we can make a change, I can lend you a new book (in spanish !!!!) of Huberto Eco. It calls "Decir casi lo mismo" and it is about the adventure of translations, I think you will enjoy it !!!!
ReplyDeleteSee you next week or in other comment!!!!