Re: CHAT: Prolog and NLP (was RE: CHAT: Umberto Eco and Esperanto)

FFlores wrote:

About Prolog ...

> My teacher says the language works the way the human brain thinks,
Most computer langs are "procedural", Prolog is "declarative".
Declaratively, I'd say "Please pass me the salt", whereas
procedurally, I'd say "reach ahead 17 inches left 4 inches, ..."
It's sorta like that. Or, procedural is more of an imperative mood.

> [1] This raises a linguistic question: how do you call an action
> that goes from A to B but doesn't produce the intended results
> on B? I think it could be a great thing for a conlang, or to
> concisely express my thoughts about my AI class. :-)
It turns out to be far more useful than one might expect.
In English, "I'm studying" versus "I'm learning".
In Texan, "I'm fixin to ...". In conlangs, see Rick Morneau.
Here's a long but very appropriate quote from
http://www.srv.net/~ram/lexical_semantics.html

> For example, a verb root representing the agent-oriented concept 'kick'
> could be used to create the following verbs:
>
>         A/P-d:  to kick
>         A/P-p:  to kick at
>
>
> Here, the "-d" verb indicates that the patient experienced a change of
> state, even though the actual final state can only be guessed at. The "-p"
> verb, however, simply indicates that the agent TRIED to affect the
> patient, and says nothing about whether the agent was successful. Note
> though, that both the "-d" and "-p" versions are action verbs. The root
> concept is simply being applied differently.
>
> Similarly, a verb root representing the patient-oriented concept
> 'scratched' could be used to create the following verbs:
>
>         P-s:    to have a scratch or scratches
>         P-d:    to get/become scratched
>         A/P-d:  to scratch
>         A/P-p:  to scratch at, to try to scratch
>
>
> In fact, some English verbs can be converted from a "-d" state verb to a
> "-p" verb using the preposition "at" and occasionally "on". Here are
> some examples:
>
>         He cut the rope.        -> dynamic state verb
>         He cut at the rope.     -> potential state verb
>
>         He grabbed the rope.    -> dynamic state verb
>         He grabbed at the rope. -> potential state verb
>
>         He shot the deer.       -> dynamic state verb
>         He shot at the deer.    -> potential state verb
>
>         He pulled the rope.     -> dynamic state verb
>         He pulled on the rope.  -> potential state verb
>         He tugged the rope.     -> potential state verb