From xod@thestonecutters.net Tue May 06 15:06:51 2003 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Tue, 06 May 2003 15:06:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [66.111.194.10] (helo=granite.thestonecutters.net) by digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.12) id 19DAaA-0006aI-00 for lojban-list@lojban.org; Tue, 06 May 2003 15:06:42 -0700 Received: from granite.thestonecutters.net (localhost.thestonecutters.net [127.0.0.1]) by granite.thestonecutters.net (8.12.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h46M2qEo087865 for ; Tue, 6 May 2003 18:02:52 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from xod@thestonecutters.net) Received: from localhost (xod@localhost) by granite.thestonecutters.net (8.12.6/8.12.6/Submit) with ESMTP id h46M2pcx087862 for ; Tue, 6 May 2003 18:02:52 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from xod@thestonecutters.net) X-Authentication-Warning: granite.thestonecutters.net: xod owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 18:02:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Invent Yourself To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] Re: measuring semantic space In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20030506175734.G74830-100000@granite.thestonecutters.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-archive-position: 5167 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: xod@thestonecutters.net Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list On Tue, 6 May 2003, Craig wrote: > >i don't know what the 35 minimal concepts that have been mentioned here are > (any pointers, anyone?), but if i choose 5 concepts, something > >is likely to get left out. if i choose 50 or 500, i think the same is true: > something will get left out. btw, toki pona comes to mind as a >minimalist > language. > > > I can't find a list of the 35 anywhere, but the idea was suggested by Whorf > as being at the heart of Nahuatl. He claimed that the forms of the 35 > Nahuatl roots could be used to guess very well at the meaning of unfamiliar > words. How one combines concepts A and B to arrive at C is an interesting question. 35 seems a bit stingy. At least 3 of those are needed for a triple of primary colors, and 4 more for spacetime; cases of true orthogonality. But how orthogonal is "police officer whacked with a sock filled with granola" to "ex-girlfriend"? -- Neoconservatism in the realm of foreign policy is merely Trotskyism-turned-inside-out: a militant internationalism fueled by U.S. taxpayer dollars and backed up by the mightiest military the world has ever seen.