Tag Archives: communication
19 Apr Learning by Doing or Active Osmosis
Intuition When people use their native language, they don’t usually think about how verbs are supposed to be conjugated. They don’t stop to figure out number agreement, transitivity, or aspect. They just talk. Intuitions about language are probably not based on the grammar rules that govern how parts of speech go together. Instead, these intuitions […]
18 Apr Irrational Language Rules
Language and Utterances Now let’s narrow the focus from communication to language. To avoid confusion, let it be clear from the outset that this discussion is not concerned with computer-programming languages, but “natural languages.” Computer languages have built-in or “prescriptive” regularity called a formal syntax. They are easy to describe, and they are obedient to […]
17 Apr Learning by Repetition
Frequency and Exposure For the very young, language learning requires mental gymnastics. Most theories of language learning refer to the fact that the frequency of repetition of a word or structure pattern determines the strength of its acquisition. In this context, there may be some threshold of frequency which, once reached, will result in the […]
16 Apr From Concept to Communication
Yorrick’s First Concepts A conceptually structured model of learning might suggest that Yorrick, or any other human, first acquires concepts, and later, a vehicle for communicating concepts: language. During Yorrick’s early development, his concepts are linked entirely to physical sensations and perceptions: hunger, soreness, the sucking instinct, and the like. One of the first discoveries […]
15 Apr The Myth of Inexpressibility
I have often heard how the the variety of Eskimo words for snow is more linguistically rich than any other language. I learned many words in Japanese for different types rain. I agree that the richness, and the simplicity, and elegance of describing different snow types with different words is remarkable. But I don’t think […]
14 Apr Translation: Inverted Communication
Lately I’ve been concentrating on modeling communicative skills. Whether speaking, signing, gesturing or writing, we begin with intent and wrap symbols around the intent or message to encode it. Translating and encrypting start with a fully encoded message, and unwrap it, before rewrapping it in a different form that is intended to preserve the original intent. Translation is an application […]
12 Apr Making a Pattern of Comprenshion
In A Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander points out that “…no pattern is an isolated entity. Each pattern can exist in the world only to the extent that it is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller […]
11 Apr Are You My Grammar?
Quest for a Formalism Many grammar formalisms have been proposed for use with computers. Many existing formalisms have been borrowed for computer applications. Currently, one of the most popular grammar theories among linguists is called Government and Binding (Chomsky, 1986). This theory has been used in some computerized language-analysis programs, but poor outcomes have demonstrated that it is […]
28 Mar Is Everything Black or White?
We have exercised our abstract ideas about that which is too big and chaotic for us to understand (everything), let’s take a glimpse at that which is so small and chaotic that we may never really figure it out: the workings of the mind. In the next few posts, we will examine different forms of logical […]
20 Mar Section 4 Intro – Perception and Cognition
Wha’cha Thinking? All the developers in the world could work forever to try to imitate brain functions, and even if they begin with a good understanding of the physiology of the brain and the microscopic mechanisms of electrical transmission between neurons, would have great difficulty passing a Turing test without some knowledge of perception, memory and cognition. Add Searle’s more demanding Chinese […]