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Re: THEORY nouns and cases (was: Verbs derived from noun cases)

From:Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
Date:Thursday, April 29, 2004, 10:01
Ahah ! So we after all came to THE point: Speech has
to be understood. It's not just words, syntax, writing
and phonology, it is meaning. Or let's say, it's
supposed to carry meaning. And this meaning is not
language-dependent, it is universal.

How could I not agree ? Even Jackendoff seems to say
so.

--- "Mark P. Line" <mark@...> wrote:
> > 1/ Convert the source speech into an inner > conceptual > > representation, using a particular set of rules > > 2/ Convert the inner conceptual representation > into > > the target language, using another particular set > of > > rules. > > I disagree. Whether for translation or any other > purpose, source speech is > not "converted" into anything. It has to be > _understood_ to be useful. > That's why machine translation is still so > difficult: computers can't be > made to understand very much (although we can make > them do conversions out > the wazoo). When all you have is a hammer, > everything looks like a nail -- > so the AI folks try to make do with conversions even > though understanding > is the only thing that will really fit the bill. > That's one of the reasons > I got out of the AI business and into the Cognitive > Science business (or > rather: I'm in AI for the business, and in CogSci > for the science...).
===== Philippe Caquant "High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover