Is Python the Esperanto of programming languages?

[Steven Taschuk]

Quoth Isaac To:
> >>>>> "Steven" == Steven Taschuk <staschuk at telusplanet.net> writes:
>     Steven> [men as sort of a pluralizer]
> I won't call it a "plural form" at all---I'd say it's a separate word that
> expresses the meaning of "more than one".  But not just that: most of the
> time it really means "people in general", i.e., most people.
>     Steven> [xie as sort of a pluralizer]
> It is much more similar to an inflection.  It has the same position as the
> "measure word" that you describe next.

I defer to your superior knowledge.  Thanks!

  [measure words]
> It is far from an inflection, however.  In particular, every noun has one
> (or, if there are a few different "life" of the noun, a few) "measure word",
> and you cannot mix them up---just like you cannot say "catch down a
> meeting".

I was thinking of it as (in the speculative far-future version of
Mandarin) an inflection of the number word, not the noun.  If
memory serves, the measure word sticks with the number; for "three
big books" you'd use "three <measure word> big book", right?

Regardless, it's an instance of agreement in Mandarin; nouns
having the same measure word can be considered to form a gender.
So Mandarin is not *entirely* free of these things, sadly.

-- 
Steven Taschuk                                                 o- @
staschuk at telusplanet.net                                      7O   )
                                                               "  (