Article in Discover magazine

[Richard.Zander at MOBOT.ORG]

I think it has a lot to do with context. I've heard that there are only 400
words in Chinese, and these are vastly augmented by pronunciation, and then
further made useful by context in a sentence.

Seen Elvis lately?

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Richard H. Zander
Bryology Group, Missouri Botanical Garden
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-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Leech [mailto:releech at TELUSPLANET.NET]
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 10:29 AM
To: TAXACOM at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU
Subject: Re: [TAXACOM] Article in Discover magazine


Hi Thomas Lammers,

I believe it is to do with numbers, as you so well pointed out.

When there were few people, for example, second names were not needed.
I could know you as Tom, others as Ken, Henry, Hans, Dieter, Ian or
whatever.