Re: FK -> non PK - bad design?

"--CELKO--" <71062.1056_at_compuserve.com> wrote in message news:c0d87ec0.0304110619.1330e043_at_posting.google.com...
> >> It is interesting to note that many natural languages don't have
> constructs for singular vs. plural, so in those languages this issue
> doesn't come up. <<
>
> Written Chinese uses modifiers (counting words) for number and has a
> wide range of them. You see some of this in English "sheet of paper",
> " bundle of X", "pair of glasses", etc. Other languages without a
> plural form use a wide range of collective nouns instead.

Japanese has a bunch of these; in fact, it even calls for a different declination of the number based on the type of the thing being numbered. So when you say "1, 2, 3 sheets of paper" you use a different 1, 2, 3 than when you say "1, 2, 3 dogs" or "cars" or "boulders" or whatever. It's even possible to derive humor from ironically using the incorrect declination of the number to imply a suprising quality of the object.

> >> (There are also some languages with singular, dual, and plural, and
> you have to wonder what they would do. But I think they are all dead
> languages, so the issue is moot.) <<
>
> Arabic isn't dead yet! Hungarian also has some duals in it. And my
> Arab students used the plurals.

I didn't know Arabic and Hungarian had duals! Very cool.

Marshall Received on Sat Apr 12 2003 - 06:34:31 CEST