Re: Word classification (was Re: The philosophical language fallacy (was Re: Evanescence of information (was Re: Going NOMAIL: Honeymoon)))
| From: | Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 22:35 |
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On 7/8/08, Rick Harrison <rick@...> wrote:
> On the other hand, all categorizing schemes are arbitrary. Pondering the
> best category for a concept sometimes seems fun but sometimes seems like a
> waste of limited time and energy. So in the long run I plan to remove rigid
> categories from the ULD and invite people to contribute alternative
> classification schemes.
How do you reckon that might work? Maybe you could let
people use tags rather than categories, with some lexical
items getting multiple tags as they might fit in multiple
categories?
In my gjâ-zym-byn lexicon db I have a "category" field by which
I generate a categorical lexicon, in addition to the alphabetical
lexicon.
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/i/jimhenry1973/gzb/nxcgtx_categ.htm
The category names themselves are (mostly) in gzb; here's
a list of the categories, with the number of words in each,
and translations of most of the gzb category terms:
16 câŋ - experimental science
357 čur - core postpositions
52 čur-tôn - derived postpositions
19 ðĭ - relationships
14 ðujm - conjunctions (various subcats below...)
6 ðujm a
10 ðujm f
10 ðujm k
5 ðujm v
19 fu-θy - colors
5 gâ - "things" (one of several catchall or miscellaneous categories)
6 glĭm - names of glyphs
9 hĭj - sacraments [there are nine terms because two
sacraments have variant names]
32 jâ - states, roles
6 jâ-buln - positions, orientations
83 jâ-fâ-ŋĭw - emotional/mental states
5 jâ-purj - environmental states
2 jâ-vuj - physical states
29 jum - modifier particles (various subcats below...)
7 jum vĭj-za
2 jum vy
8 jum žy
4 jum-frâ-θaj
16 jum-jĭrn
3 jum-ru
3 jum-šrĭ
105 mâ - people
1 mâ-dô - human imperfections?
9 mâ-tôn - sentients other than humans
3 mu-tôn - universes
11 nĭm - proper names
56 ŋĭn - descriptions, comments
1 ŋĭn-vĭj
10 ŋĭw - body parts, organs; mental faculties
73 ŋĭw-cu - the body (incl. blood, insulin, etc., etc.)
[the two above should probably merge and be re-divided
somehow; maybe by internal/external/intangible? e.g. arm, leg,
head vs. heart, stomach, pancreas vs. memory,
imagination, reason...]
75 ŋî'bĭ - numbers
10 ŋwĭm - pronouns
7 ŋwĭm-frâ - interrogative pronouns
2 pân - everything
11 pĭw - games
7 pî'hâ - holy things
56 Φĭ - qualities (various subcats below...)
4 Φĭ ðuŋ-tôn
3 Φĭ ku-faj
22 Φĭ mâ-hô
8 Φĭ zuň
17 Φĭ-buw
10 Φĭ-vĭj
15 Φĭ-vuj
1 Φĭ-vuj-cô
1 Φî zuň
17 Φyr - suffixes (various subcats below...)
3 Φyr "mal"
4 Φyr "um"
17 Φyr jum-fwa
4 Φyr kyr-fwa
5 Φyr l
6 Φyr mâ
4 Φyr n
8 Φyr nĭm
9 Φyr s
2 Φyr srǒ
18 râ - events (various subcats below...)
3 râ čâl
1 râ-cu
2 râ-vuj
14 ru - manners, methods, ways
6 ruŋ - motion
171 ryň - actions [MUST break this up into smaller categories...]
1 ryň kâj
123 ryň-ĉa --- tools, artifacts
10 ryň-kâj
1 ryň-pĭw
3 ryň-twâ
78 ryň-vuj
14 ryň-vuj-cô
4 ryň-žâw
12 ryň-zuň
24 ryň-zym
46 ŝĭw - stuff, substances, materials
10 ŝĭw θy - elements (of periodic table)
10 trĭ - measurement
7 trĭ-vĭj -- time-measurement
1 twâ-cu -- books
2 θuň - stories
60 tyn - places
4 v ? - question verbs; other verbs below
[this looks like a paucity of verbs, because verbs don't get
separate lexicon entries unless their meaning is
unpredictable from the root noun]
10 v reflexive
6 v relation
18 v state
47 vâ-faj -- food/drinks (many foodstuffs are listed among animals/plants)
2 vâ-kar-hô -- adjectives describing food/drinks
3 vĭj -- time
57 vĭj-za -- pertaining to time?
4 vlym-ŝĭw -- fabrics
44 vuj -- concrete things [a catchall category]
79 vuj-cô -- abstract concepts [another catchall category]
8 žâw -- perception, senses
91 zuň -- living things
7 zuň: ħun-tôn -- trees (need to break other broad groups
out of the "zuň" category, too)
13 źĭ -- sciences, arts, studies (various subcats...)
1 źĭ-fĭm
36 źĭ-gjâ
9 źĭ-kâj
13 źĭ-krĭ
28 źĭ-mâ
19 źĭ-ŋî'bĭ
2 źĭ-râ
2 źĭ-sĭŋ
19 źĭ-šĭm
1 źĭ-twâ-cu
4 źĭ-zuň
49 źĭ-zym
All in all, pretty ad-hoc and unsatisfactory. I keep meaning to
revamp it and putting it off. Most of the categories with only
one or two members should be merged with something else,
and the ones with 50+ members should probably be subdivided,
but there are other, more serious problems.
--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang/fluency-survey.html
Conlang fluency survey -- there's still time to participate before
I analyze the results and write the article