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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2360 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 9, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The problem is that English today isn't the same as "English" circa AD 1000, so it's not clear to me why there would be a long lasting coherent selection pressure. In fact, English today is a result of changes made to the language by its speakers over the past thousand years, so it's really not clear which way causality even runs.

I'd be much more interested in a survey of English ability of third generation Chinese immigrants in the US rather than bilingual kids in a bilingual country. I strongly suspect that the effect will be small or even in the other direction due to Asian IQ.

The problem is that English today isn't the same as "English" circa AD 1000, so it's not clear to me why there would be a long lasting coherent selection pressure.

Selection doesn't require a thousand years. It happens in each generation. And particularly with industrialism and a shift to an information economy, it's going hard. Besides which, English and Chinese are a lot more like their thousand year old selves than they are like each other. So, sure, call the matter directional.

In fact, English today is a result of changes made to the language by its speakers over the past thousand years, so it's really not clear which way causality even runs.

Statements like this freak me out. Of course it's both! You might like this: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0610848104

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