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Is English an exception in how efficiently it deals with relatives by marriage (*-in-law)? Russian, for example, has at least a dozen narrowly specific words in that linguistic corner.
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Yeah Hindi too has a dozen specific words. The in-law construct is genius. It generalizes very nicely. I for instance, inherited a cat-in-law in 2005. Works for objects too. That's my car-in-law, etc.
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Could it be that this efficiency (and many others in English) is the ultimate cause of its domination? Because Anglophones in aggregate pay the lowest cognitive-cultural taxes, in the post-Enlightenment era when such taxation started to make real difference?
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True. The moat may be deep but you can easily swim over: violating random irregularities is never fatal (meaning both natives and non-natives will still understand you perfectly well)
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