[WikiEN-l] Use of English

Mon Apr 3 21:46:58 UTC 2006

On Apr 3, 2006, at 12:00 PM, Mark Wagner wrote:

>> Simple English has one fatal flaw: sometimes there is no way to
>> describe a subject without using big, confusing words. I would
>> shudder at any presentation of any important topic in philosophy
>> that's restricted to a 1,000 word vocabulary.
>
> Someone did a reasonably good explanation of Special Relativity using
> only words of four letters or less.

That's admirable. Did they release it under GFDL? :P

Seriously though, physics is very strictly tied to reality so there's  
no temptation to multiply concepts beyond necessity the way there is  
in philosophy. Given that each of these concepts has to be defined,  
and that there are disputes over how to define these concepts,  
there's no point talking about it in Simple English because, while  
it's permissible to define and expand technical terms in Simple  
English, it would have to be done so much that it would be just as  
easy for the reader to learn full English.

-- 
Philip L. Welch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Philwelch