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Re: Non-linear full-2d writing (again)

From:Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 31, 2006, 19:45
On 1/31/06, tomhchappell <tomhchappell@...> wrote:
> --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Sai Emrys <sai@S...> wrote: > >Arbitrary in my use: any node can be connected to any number of > >other nodes. (assuming it's on the node-and-connection sort of > >style, which it need not be if it has a fusional morphology)
........
> A graph is "planar" if it can fit on a plane without any of the > connections crossing each other. > > It turns out that a graph is planar exactly if it does not contain
.... If I recall correctly, Sai was talking earlier about representing non-planar graphs using either crossover symbols to show some connections jumping over another in 3-dimensional space, or distinctly colored lines to represent such connections. I think we've covered the limits of a polygon-tiling system and a planar graph system pretty well. I'm more interested in getting back to Sai's comment about
>which it need not be if it has a fusional morphology
What did you mean by that? That some glyphs are fusions of more than one other glyph, having recognizable component parts, but acting like one glyph for the purpose of connections to other glyphs? Or more or less regular mutations of glyphs to indicate certain categories shown by inflection in spoken languages -- like the thickening of certain strokes in Heptapod B to indicate tense or plurality (I forget which)? And how would that get around the limitations that Jefferson and Tom have described? I guess if you are showing some common modifications with inflections of your primary glyphs instead of connecting them to modifier glyphs, that frees up some connections for other purposes. E.g. if you thicken the rightmost stroke of your verb-glyph to indicate pastness, you don't have to connect it to another glyph meaning "past", and it has more possible connections (in a tiling system or planar graph system), -- or at least more room to have connections before getting too cluttered to be readable, if you allow nonplanar graphs. (What other mutations might be regularly applied to glyphs for inflectional purposes? Making thin strokes thicker, making straight strokes wavy, doubling or tripling single strokes; rotating, flipping, stretching or squeezing... and of course appending some much smaller glyph. There might be different "declensions" of glyphs, with some (asymmetrical) showing plurality (for instance) by flipping or rotating, while others (more symmetical) show plurality by doubling the leftmost stroke.) -- Jim Henry http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry

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Sai Emrys <sai@...>