Nominations please, for the all asshole scale

[Andrew D]

Does blowing your own trumpet ever give you chapped lips?

I wish. But I'm not that limber.

[Sean]

Yes, alice, my presently antepenultimate posting was directed to Steve Sean, not to you.

Had reasonable differences such as those you made in your posting had been both made and acknowledged before now, this part of this thread -- which has taken a significant topic drift -- could have been less heated and more enlightening.

Thanks.

-------------------------

Illuminating error? Why does Sean increasingly remind me of Steve? Must be just me ....

Because you are the poor innocent victim aren't you? You pompous twat!

And if you want to start comparing me to Steve I'll stop being so fucking nice to you...

[Lord Jim]

And if you want to start comparing me to Steve I'll stop being so fucking nice to you...

LOL

Wow...

Heavens to Betsy, Andrew is the very last person who should be comparing anyone else to Steve...

He's the one who's adopted Steve's playbook , (behaving like a spitting cobra, and then acting like a kicked puppy, singling out women for his most venomous attacks, trying to throw others on the defensive by claiming they are doing what he is in fact doing, expressing a vain-glorious, grossly inflated view of his intellectual superiority to others, etc. etc. etc,...) pretty much in total.

Has he started posting incoherently yet? When I was still reading his posts, that was just about the only Steve technique that he hadn't yet incorporated into his repertoire...

[Andrew D]

Amazing, isn't it, how Lord Jim claims to want to ignore me, but he can't stop himself from responding to things I post every chance he gets?

Well, maybe not. We should expect that sort of thing from cowardly liars.

[Andrew D]

Because you are the poor innocent victim aren't you? You pompous twat!

And if you want to start comparing me to Steve I'll stop being so fucking nice to you...

Poor? No. (Knock on wood.)

Innocent? Far from it.

Pompous? No doubt.

I don't really give a shit about nice. Try being responsive. It would be a refreshing change.

[BoSoxGal]

[Andrew D]

When at a loss for words, post a picture.

[BoSoxGal]

The words of the reasonable are wasted on the malignant narcissist. I didn't need my Mensa-qualified IQ to learn that basic lesson from life experience.

[Rick]

When at a loss for words, post a picture.

Sorry I'm weak...

[Andrew D]

The words of the reasonable are wasted on the malignant narcissist.

Ah.

No wonder you have had so little response to my words.

[BoSoxGal]

The malignant narcissist twists the words (and actions) of others to fulfill his own perceptions; he is so caught up in his own reflection he doesn't even realize how very obvious his narcissism is to the reasonable around him - that they are quite capable of seeing the little man behind the curtain.

[Andrew D]

Is anyone confused about where we are?

I am not confused about where I am. I am laying out what I believe to be the various claims of the dispute in the hope that people who disagree with me will respond directly to them. I have responded repeatedly to points made over and over again; I hope that others will extend to me the same courtesy.

(1) I have been and remain of the judgment that a dead language is one which is no longer learned as a native language.

(2) I have been and remain of the judgment that a native language is a first language.

(3) I have been and remain of the judgment that a dead language is one which is no longer learned as a first language.

(4) I have been and remain of the judgment that because a dead language is one which is no longer learned as a first language, a living language must be one which is learned as a first language.

(5) I have been and remain of the judgment that in order for a dead language to be resurrected, it must become a living language.

(6) I have been and remain of the judgment that in order for a language to become a living language, it must become a language which is learned as a first language.

(7) I have been and remain of the judgment that at some time, Cornish ceased to be a language which was learned as a first language.

(8) I have yet to see evidence that Cornish is presently learned as a first language.

(9) I conclude -- unhappily, because I wish that the truth were otherwise -- that Cornish is presently a dead language, although it appears to be on its way to resurrection, which would be a good thing.

Point (1) appears to be undisputed.

Point (2) is disputed. I have presented direct evidence that a native language is a first language: "The first language a human being learns is [her or] his native language; he [or she] is a native speaker of that language."

The contrary claim appears to be that one's native language can be some language other than one's first language. Pursuant to the reasoning evidently underlying that claim, a language can be a person's "native language" even if he or she has never spoken that language. I fail to see any coherent explanation of how that is possible. That claim also appears to rely on the assertion that one's "native language" can be a language which one has learned only in adulthood. I fail to see any coherent support for that assertion.

Point (3) is a corollary of points (1) and (2).

Point (4) is a corollary of point (3).

Point (5) follows from the -- apparently undisputed -- idea that "dead" and "alive" are contradictory.

Point (6) is a corollary of points (2) and (4).

Point (7) appears to be undisputed.

Points (8) and (9) are based on the evidence which I have thus far seen. Of course, if Cornish is presently being learned as a first language, then Cornish is not dead.

What, exactly, are the disagreements with those points? And what are those disagreements based on?

[Andrew D]

Some people lay out arguments rationally. Other people post pictures.

[Lord Jim]

they are quite capable of seeing the little man behind the curtain.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!

[Andrew D]

Any responses to the specific points at issue?

Or just more vacuous pictures?

[Crackpot]

I'm Mensa Qualified BSG never spoke about it and never joined because I realized early on that they're a bunch of self absorbed engaged in one large mental circle jerk.

[BoSoxGal]

Same here, CP.

That reference was for the benefit of the Great & Powerful Oz, who believes he is WAY smarter than the rest of us.

eta: When people ask me where I went to law school, I answer 'DC'. I am generally unimpressed with status symbols of the like, having learned in my time surrounded by the 'elite' that a great many are pretentious asses without character traits worth emulating.

[Rick]

Everyone is smarter than me.

But that's OK...

[dales]

Same here.

[Gob]

As I have said repeatedly, I have been from the beginning using the definitions according to which Cornish is dead. Those definitions are that a dead language is one that is no longer learned as a native language and that a native language is a first language.

Ah well, you set up your own laws, then you will find that other people may choose not to live by them

Cornish was dead, there were no living speakers of it. It was resurrected, now there are living speakers of it.

Cornish was the native language of Cornwall, it died, Cornish was resurrected, there are now native speakers of it.

(Mind you, this only works if you use the dictionary definitions of "resurrected" and "native")