Iāve observed a connection between lovers of computer languages, and lovers of human languages.
If you are interested in coding or linguistics, are you interested in both or just one of of the two? If only one interests you, which one and why? If both interest you, do they seem related to one another?
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Iām interested in Linguistics. Not deeply interested on the sets of instructions used by computers, although I know a bit of bash (does it count?).
I think that āprogramming languagesā is at most an overused, overextended metaphor. Itās on the same level as saying that a language is āaliveā - sure, you can get a few interesting outcomes from the metaphor, but you need to remember that metaphors become mushy once pulled and pushed hard enough.
Thatās interesting, theyāre two of my biggest interests. I wonder if this is true for a lot of other people.
Yep this is me. I love learning languages and Iām a software dev for my job.
Hmm same here, but im interested in human language etymology and theory. Im really bad at using āhumanā languages :\
Iām kinda interested in both, but mostly coding because linguistics often involves humans
I like both! But it never occurred to me that thereās correlation
Do programming languages count? If so, Iām a polyglot.
Both. I donāt think theyāre particularly related to me. One is more like a puzzle, the other one interests me more in terms of finding meaning and common origins in words from different languages. I also enjoy getting pronunciation right in foreign languages.
this is me
Both! I have traveled internationally and always try to learn enough of the local language to at least show some respect for peopleās cultures. If I were to pursue an advanced degree and didnāt care about money, it would be in linguistics. I also use or have used a lot of computer languages, so maybe thatās it, itās not just programming, itās collecting more ways to express yourself.
Both. Theyāre not particularly related or similar. But through naming, comments, and docs theyāre connected for a common means.
I enjoy formulating in a concise, precise way. I like wordplay. Iām interested in different human languages. Iām familiar with several ācomputerā languages.
Languages encode meaning. Data formats, specifications and descriptions formalize rules. Human languages have rules too, but they are much more dynamic, diffuse and changing.
I have an interest in both, but have mainly focused on human language. I speak Danish (and by extension a fair bit of Norwegian and Swedish and English, and some level of reading in German, Spanish and French, and have studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Akkadian academically.
Iām considering getting back into coding for a career change now, havenāt really used it much since my teens. I used ASP, PHP and SQL.
I have a logic approach to both, I think, but theyāre also quite different.
Iām interested in linguistics in a linguistic way. Languages tell something about a culture. For examply by what subjects have many words and which donāt. Or how seperated ranks in society are by the amount of (used) formality forms. The level of directness might corolate to the level of pragmatism. What foreign influence there is can be partly seen by loanwords and writing symbols. Etc. Etc.
But computer languages are hardly linguistic, most of them are just English in a specific syntax. I love computers, but they interest me in a technical way. Even the best AI relies on switches turning off and on, yes and noās, 1ās and 0ās. Itās black and white logical mathmatics. In the end, programming languages are little more than āthe creator thought this was a good way to handle which switches should go on and offā, and you just use whatās most practical for your use-case. That is, quantum computers aside, but even those are similar in that really. Just more complex.
Iām interested in both! I program in Python, and Iām trying to get more into linguistics.
Computer languages are just so straight to the point. If something goes wrong, itās your fault for not specifying. Itās beautiful that way. I also love the problem-solving involved.
Human language is the complete opposite and I love it for that too. Itās full of ambiguity, and so many words seem related to each other - but with their own little nuances. If you say a certain word, it may have synonyms but most synonyms canāt give that exact meaning that a certain word gives. There are also soo many undertones you can say with a certain word. Once, my friend accidentally said ādenigrationā instead of ādesegregationā (in context to black people and white people) which I found really interesting considering ādenigrationā was derived from the Latin word for āblackā (the n-word) and meant āto get rid of the bad thingsā, therefore associating black with bad.
Do they seem related? I dunno. I just love patterns and I love how languages convey meaning, whether computer or human.
Whelp I think I just started waxing poetic
I enjoy learning and using both. What I like most I think is seeing the wide range of solutions that people and cultures have come up with for communicating abstract ideas (both spoken and programming languages). Iām a native English speaker and I remember how my mind was blown when I learned that Chinese characters convey meaning rather than sounds, so that speakers of different dialects could still understand each otherās writing, even if they couldnāt understand each otherās speech. Similar feeling when I studied functional programming after using nothing but procedural/OOP for most of my life.
I code in a few languages and Iāve always wanted to know more than one āhumanā language but efforts in that area have more or less consistently failed (exception being Esperanto because thatās easy, but since hardly anyone speaks it itās not exactly useful).
Despite my interest in both I doubt thereās much of a correlation when you look at programmers (or polyglots) as a group, though. For all we call all of these things ālanguagesā thereās a pretty big distinction and difference in complexity and approach between the computer and human ones, itās a whole different hobby.
Iād compare coding more to other hobbies that involve making things. I knit a jumper, I develop a video gameā¦scratches same itch.
Or possibly problem-solving hobbies. I work out how to adjust a sewing pattern to fit, I solve a tricksy sudokuā¦again same itch.
Also both for me ! (even subscribed to programmer_humor and also linguistics_humor here on Lemmy)
Story time:
When I was at school, I hated languages (as a native French, English was a PAIN for me), but already was programming for fun outside school. Since I finished school, I grown interest in linguistics as well. I think for me itās more because manga and animes, and because I am curious, so I wanted to understand all the little parts in texts⦠So I learned Japanse, then improved my English⦠then went curious about chinese⦠Spanish⦠And at this point, I donāt even learn new languages (too much time), I only searched for differences, construction and all; and that is where I discovered Linguistics basically.
Difference between human & computer language:
I heard that part of the brain that process Human language and Computer language is the same, that may be the reason, idk
They seems to be really different though, you donāt āSpeakā or write a computer program like you write a text or a poem, itās a totally different thinking process. The same way, you never read code from top to bottom left to right (reason why unindented code is AWFUL to read), itās more about looking around whatās going on, to understand what the whole is doing. Sentences are way less dependent on the context (and WAYYYYY less dependent on what follows) to understand them.
But in a way, with time, we lean patterns, and know to recognize them (both in human and computer language), that may be the reason why they are both on the same part of the brain
For one, youāre using a complex system of communication, where the meaning of each unit meaning changes, depending on context and the agreement between speaker and hearer. The system is used for phatic, performatic, epistemic, deontic statements, plus more; and itās usually tied into utterances and discourse in a higher level. And itās such a mess that would make any spaghetti code look cleaner in comparison.
For the other, youāre delivering a set of instructions. It behaves far more like maths over strictly performative statements than like the above. If you say x = 1, then x is 1. And if you ask if x == 1, youāll get a true/false output, not any sort of implicature or āit depends on contextā.
I write code in a bunch of different languages without breaking a sweat, but the human spoken language has always been a mystery to me. I can barely handle one language, Iāve tried learning two others and failed miserably except for a very small handful of words.