kim0 comments on "What Is Wrong With Our Thoughts" - Less Wrong

23 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 17 May 2009 07:24AM

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Comment author: kim0 18 May 2009 08:55:07PM 2 points [-]

What exactly makes it difficult to use Russian? I know Russian, so I will understand the explanation.

I find my native Norwegian better to express concepts in than English. If I program something especially difficult, or do some difficult math, physics, or logic, I also find Norwegian better.

However, if I do some easier task, where I have studied it in English, I find it easy to write in English, due to a "cut and paste" effect. I just remember stuff, combine it, and write it down.

Comment author: cousin_it 18 May 2009 10:18:27PM *  1 point [-]

Whenever I try translating some math or programming stuff from Russian into English or vice versa, the Russian version ends up about 20% longer. Maybe it's because many useful connective words in Russian are polysyllabic, e.g. "kotoryi" (which) ,"chtoby" (to), "poetomu" (so), making sentences with complex logical structure sound clumsy. Translating into Russian always feels like a poetic jigsaw puzzle to make the phrase sound okay, while translating into English feels more anything-goes at the expense of emotional nuance. YMMV.

Comment author: JGWeissman 18 May 2009 10:32:12PM 0 points [-]

It seems that, at least in this usage, English better approximates the ideal expressed in Entropy, and Short Codes:

People have a tendency to talk, and presumably think, at the basic level of categorization - to draw the boundary around "chairs", rather than around the more specific category "recliner", or the more general category "furniture". People are more likely to say "You can sit in that chair" than "You can sit in that recliner" or "You can sit in that furniture".

And it is no coincidence that the word for "chair" contains fewer syllables than either "recliner" or "furniture". Basic-level categories, in general, tend to have short names; and nouns with short names tend to refer to basic-level categories. Not a perfect rule, of course, but a definite tendency. Frequent use goes along with short words; short words go along with frequent use.

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