Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA29529 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 20 Nov 2000 14:34:21 GMT Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 06:26:51 -0800 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: John Hancock "meme" To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <3A1934AB.2807831F@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Yahoo;YIP052400} (Win95; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: en References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745B20@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Vincent,
> Of course, for slang in the English language, the Australians have taken it
> to new heights by trying to reduce every word to either one or two syllables
> (e.g. University becomes Uni, Tattoo becomes Tat, sausage becomes snag etc.
> etc). Anyone know whether that could make Australian English a more
> efficient version?
>
Well, the memetics answer is maybe in the short run, but probably not,
in the long run. Every language makes use of abbreviations of various
sorts. When I was in Japan, U. S. football was referred to in slang as
Amerag (pronounced as in Spanish), which was short for American rugby.
In most linguistic environments, short words and phrases -- but not too
short -- are more fit, as a rule, because they make less demand on human
communication resources. Our memes may shape us, but we shape them, too.
About not being too short: I took my girlfriend in for her mammogram
recently and saw a brochure at the hospital about BSE. I was puzzled why
they would be giving out a brochure about Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease), but it was about Breast
Self-Examination. ;-)
Best,
Bill
P. S. If I do not respond to this group for a while, please do not think
me rude. I am going to be offline for about a week over Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, no matter where you live. :-)
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