Re: Something more to put after the full stop.

["Mark Emson" <mt -dot- emson -at- ntlworld -dot- com>]

"Sean Hower" <hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com> wrote in message
news:162761 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
>
> That's probably a good interpretation of the situation. I would think that
learners of a second/foreign language end up getting a clearer understanding
of meta-language about the language they're studying.
>
> When you say "the real rules" what are you referring to?
>
>

Perhaps it was an over simplification but, by the 'real rules' I am
referring to adult learners needing to know how, in the new language, to
construct words and sentences etc before they will attempt to do so.
I assume, from my own poor attempt at learning Italian, most of us don't
learn a new language by trial and error. When we get stuck we look up the
correct word or phrase. We see how it is linked to other combinations that
we may already know. What do we use when we look something up. 'A book of
rules' - of a sort. How correct or valid they are we don't know. If we did
we wouldn't need them.

Ultimately I think we have to assume that rules are only valid for as long
as they serve our purpose. In line with this notion, I think I recall some
information saying that many of Einstein's theories, laws, rules etc have
now been proven to be inaccurate and/or false. However, during the time they
were valid, they worked perfectly well.

Mark Emson.



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