Re: Langauge Constets (was Natural Semantic Metalanguage)

In a message dated 11/21/2007 7:08:49 PM Central Standard Time,
fiziwig@YAHOO.COM writes:


> I have a syntax I worked out some years ago that
> allows building sentences of arbitrary complexity, and which is capable (I
> believe) of translating any English sentence into that syntax, and yet has
> only
> three parts of speech (A, B, and C) and three rules:
>
> [AB].B  (An A followed by a B can play the role of B)
> [BC].C  (B followed by a C can play the role of C)
> [BCC].C (B followed by two consecutive Cs can play the role of C)
>
> D is a primitive.
> B uses its meaning to modify the meaning of one or two Cs.
> A uses its meaning to modify the meaning of B, which can then modify the
> meaning of one or two Cs.
>
> Example:
>
> The children ran very quickly after the dog.
>
> Analysis:
> [[very quickly] [after [the dog] [ran [the children]]]]
> [[very.A quickly.B].B [after.B [the.B dog.C].C [ran.B [the.B
> children.C].C].C].C].C
> [[AB].B [B [BC].C [B [BC].C].C].C].C
> [B [BC [BC].C].C].C
> [B [BCC].C].C
> [BC].C
> C
>
> Which could then be modified in turn by another B like "Yesterday.B" (using
> rule [BC].C) to take the role of yet another C:
>
> [Yesterday C].C
>
> Giving:
>
> Yesterday the children ran very quickly after the dog.
> [Yesterday [[very quickly] [after [the dog] [ran [the children]]]]]
>
> Of course the brackets are just to illustrate the analytic groupings. In
> practice the sentence would be written, left to right, without them:
>
> Yesterday very quickly after the dog ran the children.
>
> The syntax is simple and concise, and the sentences produced are always
> unambiguous, given that each B word includes, in its definition, the number
> of
> Cs it modifies.
>
> The slump in the U.S. currency to record lows on global markets this month
> has
> hit export revenues of oil exporters because oil is priced in dollars.
>
> [because [unit dollars [of oil price]] [hit(has) [of [of oil exporter(p)] [of
> export revenue(p)]] [at-time [this month] [the [on [global market(p)][to
> [record low][slump(did) [of U-S currency]]]]]]]]
>
> --gary
>
What are the parts of speech?  How do you know what part of speech a word
belongs to?

stevo   </HTML>

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