Isn't it crazy how there are only 26 letters yet so many words that can be made from them? Like there has to be some sort of a limit on how many combinations of letters there can be to form words. I'm not sure, I'm uber baked, but its something to think about. p.s. if anyone knows this limit tell me lol, it probably takes some serious math or something though
You know I typed up something earlier today, it seemed kind of pointless, but it kind of fits with what you're saying OP. "There are 26 letters in the english alphabet. And with those 26 letters we can create hundreds of thousands of words. With those words we can express millions of ideas. And those ideas can be interpreted in billions of ways."
[quote name='"The Incredible"']yeah... you are really baked.. and yes there is a limit.... the alphabet is finite[/quote] Not exactly. Think of the concept of a word. Technically we can use any letters to make words, but their pronounciation would be an issue. The number of usuable letters may be finite, but the possibilities are endless.
And with the addition of new ways of using them - text speak for example, we are now seeing even more how much of a symbol the way we communicate with them is. We can combine letters into all sorts of combinations, and as long as someone can pronounce it, and its meaning is accepted, it is a word. It seems we have enough of them to express ourselves adequately, and there are many, if you peruse through the complete Oxford dictionary, that most simply no longer use anymore. The more creative amongst us can use these words in ever more creative ways to express ideas that hitherto were not expressed so clearly. It's not so much that there might be a limit, even though with a finite amount of letters there must be, it is how we choose to use them that matters, and that will always remain free to change.
I don't think the alphabet is crazy; I think language and how we use letters is pretty fucking cool. George Carlin said he got into comedy because there were so many ways to say a single joke, but obviously, if you chose the "wrong" way to say a joke, it wouldn't get as many laughs or resonate well with others. Ever since I heard him say that years ago, I started to pay attention to words and language and sentence structure when reading something or just in normal conversation. It's a beauty of humanity.
Technically there is an infinite number of possible words. Because you can put an infinite number of letters in an imaginary word. In you words of thurgood Jenkins, you have smoked yourself retarded. (I mean that I'm the best way possible)
Not sure where the topic of stupidity came from, but lets put this in numbers. Using a simple factorial, if we could use one letter of the alphabet once in each word, we'd have 26 positions. 26P26(or 26!) equals out to about =4.03291462E+26. That's just if we use only one letter, no repeats. Thats all the possible combinations of words.