[lojban] Re: measuring semantic space

[Invent Yourself <xod@thestonecutters.net>]

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"?


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