<div dir="auto"><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 15, 2023, 11:02 PM Gordon Swobe via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Apr 15, 2023 at 3:04 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:</div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><div dir="auto">
<br>
The <i>associations</i> of words are what contain, not just the
seeds of, but their actual, meanings.</div></blockquote><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Please explain to me how the association of one word with another or others tells me anything about the meaning of any if I know the meaning of none.</div></div></div></blockquote></div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">From the patterns:</div><div dir="auto">Words following a, an, the, are objects/nouns.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Numbers are often listed in a certain sequence (e.g. in ascending order), often used before nouns (can infer it gives a count). We note that one/1 is special as we don't see a plural form of nouns used when dealing with one, but do for multiples. We note the identity and common occurrence between none and zero. We thereby come to learn the meaning of 'none'</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Words that can stand alone as sentences are verbs. Only certain nouns perform certain verbs, and with certain frequencies. This defines a particular repitoire of possible and probable actions available to any noun. We learn which nouns are most capable (e.g. 'people') and which are least capable (e.g. 'rocks')</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Words like 'have' define parts. Words like 'is' define identity or membership within a broader category. We can begin building a mapping between all nouns by noting which appear before 'is a' and which appear after 'is a'. E.g., a cat is a mammal. A mammal is an animal.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">We begin building a semantic network of all these relationships, even if at first we don't know the meanings of any verb or noun, we know the words associated with what each noun can do, what categories it belongs to, and what parts they have. Once a few pieces fill in, the meaning of the rest of the map comes into focus.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">We find that when we trace the 'is a' relation ladder all the way to the top starting from any noun, and we tend to always reach 'thing'. We thus can conclude the meaning of these words is the most general, nondescript category of object. So we know what 'thing' means. Likewise if we trace 'is made of' relationships down, we always end up with 'atom' or 'particle', and this we could conclude this word is the most elemental thing from which every 'thing' is made.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Certain prepositions or adjectives connect certain nouns in certain ways, for example by defining spatial relations: inside, near, above, below, etc. We'll always see certain words connected by inside but almost never the other way around: "the man is in the house", but not "the house is in the man". Each example of a pattern like this provides an inkling of some relationship and property of the objects involved. When we find numerical descriptions relating to 'size' we find a pattern that larger objects are almost never said to be 'inside' objects with a greater numerical size. We might infer then they inside relates the spatial relation of one object having a smaller size and located within another. We learn the word 'small' and 'large' from numerical associations in the descriptions of words like length width, height, which often appear together. We find that when volume is mentioned as well it is the the product of these three. So we understand the meaning of volume as a product of these properties, each of which 'is a' dimension.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I hope this shows how the patterns in language, if analyzed in detail, reveal a great deal, and enough to puzzle out the probable meaning of a few words at first and then each new word learned gives clues to solving all the other words related to it, until all words can be understood provided enough example usages.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Jason </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="auto"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><div dir="auto"> This should be obvious. Look
at the word 'wicked' for example.</div></blockquote><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I can infer the meaning of wicked only if it associated with other words of which I know the meaning. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-gts</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><div dir="auto"></div></blockquote></div></div>
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