[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Can the Chinese language express more things in XMLthan ca

• From: Thomas Passin <list1@tompassin.net>
• To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
• Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:22:22 -0500

On 2/10/2023 9:43 AM, Roger L Costello wrote:

Hi Folks,

A couple days ago Michael Kay gave this great post:
--------------------------------------------------
Consider three English sentences:

(a) There are tomatoes in the fridge.

(b) Go to the shop and buy more tomatoes.

(c) How many tomatoes are there in the fridge?

English is flexible: A sentence can provide information, give instructions, or ask questions.

XML is equally flexible.
--------------------------------------------------
I showed that to a colleague and he replied:

I don't remember details, but there are some things that English
can't do well linguistically that e.g., I think Chinese can do.
  It would be interesting to see if XML can do those things.

Is that true? Is there something that can be expressed in Chinese that is not a statement of information, not an instruction, and not a question?

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Can the Chinese language express more things in XMLthan can be expressed in English?
    • From: Dave Pawson <dave.pawson@gmail.com>

• References:
  • Can the Chinese language express more things in XML than can beexpressed in English?
    • From: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>