Re: Langauge Constets (was Natural Semantic Metalanguage)

--- Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> wrote:

<snip>

> That idea was tossed out here in June 1999 and several
> people gave it a try, including myself and Sally Caves.
> See the various threads at
>
> http://archives.conlang.info/1999-06.html
>
> under such subject lines as "Tiny lexicon language",
> "20-word language challenge," "Tiny languages",
> and so forth.
>
> --
> Jim Henry
> http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/review/log.htm
>
What about a minimal syntax? 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