From reid@xxxxxxxx.xxxx Fri Feb 19 14:24:47 1999 X-Digest-Num: 65 Message-ID: <44114.65.280.959273824@eGroups.com> Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 16:24:47 -0600 (CST) From: Christopher Palmer > Show me a language that *doesn't* rely heavily on metaphor, and I'll > > show you a proglang. :^) > > Every library call is a metaphor. Not so. Libraries are additions to the 'dictionary' of primitive functions; they are lexical, not metaphoric. The lexicon is built up from primitives not by analogy with (prog)linguistic extra-(prog)linguistic context, but by the direct logical consequences of the primitves themselves. Metaphor is inherently tied to context, and proglangs are by design context-independent. ---------(( Christopher Reid Palmer : www.pconline.com/~reid/ ))--------- the characters i am, made into a word complete -- Meshuggah