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Re: Langauge Constets (was Natural Semantic Metalanguage)

From:Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>
Date:Wednesday, November 21, 2007, 22:30
On Nov 21, 2007 5:13 PM,  <MorphemeAddict@...> wrote:
> In a message dated 11/21/2007 8:03:00 AM Central Standard Time, > lars.finsen@ORTYGIA.NO writes: > > > > I think if enough derivational morphemes are allowed, it should be > > possible to create a fully usable language from much less than 20 > > words.
In other words, 20 roots and a larger number of affixes? That seems like cheating.
>> If mathematics can be derived from just two entities, 0 and 1, > > why not a speaking language? I think the words 'here' and 'there' are > > a good place to start,
> How can mathematics be derived from just '0' and '1'? You have to be able to > combine them somehow, and that means adding an operation, which immediately > means a third item.
It seems you could make a good start, at least -- I'm not sure about deriving the whole of mathematics -- with one number, 1, and two operations, addition and subtraction. 0 is 1 minus 1. You could also do it with one operation (addition) and two numbers, 1 and -1. -- Jim Henry http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry

Replies

Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly <mungojelly@...>building from primitives (was Re: Langauge Constets)
Michael Poxon <mike@...>