Re: double negatives

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> Indeed, yes. This concept of 'spaces' reminds me a lot of my conceptual
> model of namespaces in, say, C++... I wonder when the first object-oriented
> theory of language will appear, since we've already had a functional
> theory of language
:-).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226300862/o/qid=932591095/sr=
8-2/002-7691675-7497437

Constructions : A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure
(Cognitive Theory of Language and Culture Series)

By Adele Goldberg, using the recent theory of Charles Fillmore.  She
assumes that a grammar consists of "core" constructions, and
derivative constructions based on those core constructions and on each
other, which "inherit" the characteristics of the constructions they
are derived from, unless explicitly specified otherwise.  Goldberg
specifically references object-oriented programming as the source for
this idea.

George Lakoff, in the grammatical analyses in the appendices of
_Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things_, uses a similar system.  He and
Goldberg's systems both are based on a brain-like, and not a
particularly computer-like, model of memory and cognition, though, and
depend crucially on pragmatics and real-world situations in the way
constructions are derived one from another.


Ed Heil ------------------------------- edheil@postmark.net
"Facts are meaningless! You can use facts to prove anything
   that's even _remotely_ true!"           -- Homer Simpson