Image description: Google search for “extant languages”

Including results for [extinct languages]
Search only for [extant languages]


(Originally published on mastodon.social: 2024-02-17)

  • gila
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    4 months ago

    I get that, I don’t think that’s related to some failure of Google though. The problem originates with the different meaning of “extinct” in relation to language, and consequently the meaning of its opposite. I think what you’re looking for is “living languages”, and you’d need a full-on LLM search assistant to be able to make a connection between “extant” and “living” languages because generally those aren’t synonyms.

    • mcc@mastodon.socialOP
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      4 months ago

      @gila or they could have searched for “extant languages” when I searched for extant languages and searched for “live languages” when I searched for live languages

      • gila
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        4 months ago

        If it did, then you’d still not get any relevant results, because again, those aren’t things. A list of extant languages would simply be a list of all languages throughout history that aren’t delineated as some kind of proto-language developed by early humans. Such specificity is not at all conveyed by the term “extant languages”. The search engine can’t reply, “under what circumstances are they extant? Are Klingon, C++, Heiroglyphs desired results? They’re extant!”

        I would agree insofar as “live languages” should autocorrect to “living languages”, but it is getting pretty into the weeds linguistically

        • mcc@mastodon.socialOP
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          4 months ago

          @gila “If it did, then you’d still not get any relevant results” and then i’d try phrasing it a different way, and i’d have gotten there quicker because the search engine didn’t slow me down by wasting my time