The neuter nom/acc identity in case forms is not a good example,
since to my knowledge that identity existed in proto-Indo-European
and is maintained in most if not all her descendents (cf. English
he:him, she:her, but it:it).
Not counting the vocative and relics of the locative and instrumental,
classical Latin had five cases (nom., gen., dat., acc., and abl.),
while Greek had only four, the ablative having merged with the genitive.
Even though the dative and ablative plurals have become identical in
all declensions, Latin nonetheless maintains at least as many case
distinctions as the Greek. Thus, although some cases share identical
endings, I would not characterize Latin as having "a lot more
ambiguities in the case system than Greek."
>This evening I was reading *Christianity for the
>Twenty-First Century*, by Alexander Men (p50) and came
>across the following quote from Norbert Wiener that looks
>like a paraphrase of the second law of thermodynamics:
>
>". . . the universe and all the closed systems it contains
>tend naturally to be used up and to lose their definition,
>and tend to pass from a less probable to a more probable
>state, from a state of organization and differentiation
>where there are distinctions and forms to a state of chaos
>and uniformity." (Norbert Wiener, *Kibernetika i
>obshchestov*).
>
>Does this apply to case systems? If so what can we make
>of the *state* of the Latin case system in classical
>period? Is it further along the way toward a "more
>probable state" than Greek of the same period?
No, the Second Law does not apply to languages nor even to
the planet earth, for they are open systems. Entropy may
decrease in open systems, although in closed systems it
increases.
It has been evident that, from an information science
perspective, losses in distinctions according to one
mechanism, e.g. case endings, have led to the
preservation of the same kinds of distinctions via a
different mechanism, e.g. mandatory prepositions. Another
example, is the French verb system. Phonological changes
resulted in most of the verb forms having identical
pronunciations, forcing the mandatory use of subject
pronouns.
Stephen Carlson
-- Stephen C. Carlson : Poetry speaks of aspirations, scarlson@mindspring.com : and songs chant the words. http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/ : -- Shujing 2.35