Paul,

The way computer language slip over the transom is as research tool.  In some programs, research language has been generalized to research tool, so that statistics, computer languages, ethnographic methodology, and, presumably, music theory all fit in as research tools.  

Our applied linguistics doctoral program requires two natural languages.  Our literature and composition doctoral programs require one.  No other doctoral program on campus requires any.

Herb


-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Paul E. Doniger
Sent: Tue 11/28/2006 4:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: natural languages and computer languages
 
Wow, it's amazing how far off the beam our culture can get. Would I then be able to qualify for the language part of a PhD requirement because I know music theory? That's a language, too, isn't it?  -- and a much more subtle one than computer language. I'd be willing to bet that my proposal (which I really wouldn't expect any university to take seriously) would have a more difficult time being accepted than the computer language proposal would. This is a troubling trend in higher education if it's true.

Paul D.


----- Original Message ----
From: Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 1:04:54 PM
Subject: Re: natural languages and computer languages


I think it was Herb that mentioned the dispute going on at his university about whether skill with a computer language ought to count for the foreign language requirement.  The use of the word "language" for both competencies seems to have misled administrators.  I came across the following aside in a description of formal systems:  
 
.The above example shows clearly the enormous difference in subtlety and quality between a computer programming language and a natural human language, underscoring the dubious nature of proposals often seen in universities nowadays to substitute knowledge of a computer language for a foreign language Ph.D. language competency requirements.  Even the most elaborate and sophisticated computer languages pale by comparison with natural languages in their expressive power, not to mention the enormous cultural content that's carried along almost for free with a natural language.  For reasons such as these, many see such proposals to replace knowledge of a natural language by knowledge of a computer language as at best a shallow, anti-intellectual joke, and the theory of formal systems provides a basis for construction of rational arguments against their adoption.
 
Casti, John L., Reality Rules: I, Picturing the World in Mathematics - The Fundamentals (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992), p. 27.
 
Bruce
 


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