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▲ layer8 4 hours ago

Human language isn’t a formal language, so this is a category error.

In the present context, an example is that the common reading of a Kanji word isn’t always well-defined, and neither is the decomposition of a sequence of Kanji characters into words.

▲roughly 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It's often used as one, though.

▲layer8 4 hours ago | parent [-]

No, it’s not? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_language#Definition

▲roughly 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It's an interesting move to point me to a rigorously written English language definition of a formal language to make the argument that humans don't co-opt our natural languages as formal languages when the need arises.

▲layer8 3 hours ago | parent [-]

That’s not what “formal language” means. English being used to describe a formal definition doesn’t make it a formal language.

▲roughly 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I didn’t say it was a formal language, I said humans co-opt it as one.