language aquisition

Phil   Thu May 04, 2006 1:28 am GMT
Do people find that the more languages they know, the easier it is to learn another language?
Is there a maximum space in your brain for vocabulary words?
Guest   Thu May 04, 2006 5:38 am GMT
Well, a jargon is specialised vocabulary for a very particular field of endeavour. But pidgins and creoles are generally derived from a combination of other languages, so their lexicon would be comprehensive. They would need to have a hell of a lot more than 300 to 800 words to be of any use to those who speak them natively.
Geoff_One   Sat May 06, 2006 2:49 pm GMT
<<This implies that the maximum number of words a person's brain (or mind) can store is maybe a little beyond 120,000. >>
Question Mark.
It was once stated that "A picture is worth a thousand words". There have been some update(s) on this, but I believe the general idea is still OK. Not withstanding the update(s), does the following seem correct? - The brain can only store a little beyond the equivalent (in words) of 120 pictures.
Geoff_One   Sat May 06, 2006 3:13 pm GMT
<<This implies that the maximum number of words a person's brain (or mind) can store is maybe a little beyond 120,000. >>
The number of neurons in a human brain is typically 100 billion. I think the billion here is the US rather than than the UK billion. I may be corrected here on this point and the 100 billion figure. I know that neurons and their connections are used for many purposes other than the storage of words. But lets just have a look at one ratio here. The neuron to word ratio. This ratio comes out at 833,333.33. An explanation is therefore required.
Candy   Sat May 06, 2006 3:25 pm GMT
<<I think the billion here is the US rather than than the UK billion.>>

Geoff, the US and UK billion are the same these days - 1000 million. The old word 'milliard' (meaning 1000 million) seems to be no longer in use, at least in Britain, and we use 'trillion' for the next number up (a million million)