Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ    Attic   

A Two-Dimensional Sentence Structure

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Thursday, November 20, 2008, 21:09
A two-dimensional sentence structure that allows you to read the words of the
sentence in any order you like. You can start at any point in the diagram and
wander in any direction and you will eventually acquire the full meaning of the
sentence.

<http://fiziwig.com/chatbot/baby_walk.gif>
<http://fiziwig.com/chatbot/john_mary5.gif>
<http://fiziwig.com/chatbot/graph04.gif>

Or an entire paragraph (or an entire novel, for that matter) could be put into
one two-dimensional structure. Consider this opening from a children's reader:

For weeks the children had been looking forward to summer vacation.
They could hardly wait for the long summer days.
Then there would be no more hurrying off after breakfast.
No more homework in the evening!
There would be nothing to do but play and enjoy themselves from morning until night.
At least, that was how it seemed to Bill and Martha Strong and the Baker twins
and Sally Green, the little group of friends who lived at the far end of town.
As they had gone to and from school together the last few days, they had talked
of nothing but vacation and what good times they were going to have.
It would be just too wonderful.

Now see it in two dimensions:

<http://fiziwig.com/chatbot/graph01.gif>

(BTW: This is part of my chatbot research
<http://fiziwig.com/chatbot/network01.html>, not my conlanging, but it occurred
to me that a two-dimensional conlang might be interesting.)

--gary

Reply

Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>