Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

>Most of the people find recursion difficult but it's not.

Recursion is really hard.

According to

https://phys.org/news/2019-08-recursive-language-modern-simu...

Recursive language is a relatively recent phenomenon and even now is much harder to acquire than language and grammar. Recursion is probably the biggest thing that separates our communication from that of other species and gives such a big advantage.

That being said, if you are reading HN, you have already mastered a recursive human language. You have the ability to understand recursion. Just be aware that it is one of the more complicated things your brain does, and be patient with yourself. Keep working at it, and eventually you will get it. Don't become discouraged by the process and give up.

While recursive human language and recursion in computing terms are related, I really don't see they gain much from each other.

> Recursive language is a relatively recent phenomenon

Is there any evidence it's more recent than non-recursive language acquisition, evolutionarily (rather than developmentally ie child to adult)?

For reference for others in this thread, an example of linguistic recursion is <https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/This_Is_the_House_That_Jack_Built>

    This is the horse and the hound and the horn
    That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn
    That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
    That woke the judge all shaven and shorn
    That married the man all tattered and torn
    That kissed the maiden all forlorn
    That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
    That tossed the dog that worried the cat
    That killed the rat that ate the malt
    That lay in the house that Jack built.

Thanks for sharing this article!

Everyone already understands recursion, they just dont know it. If you learned to count, you learned recursion.

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