gordon@warwick.UUCP (Gordon Joly) (05/12/86)
Walking to work this morning, listening to my personal hi-fi, I noticed
how difficult it was to cross the road. I was missing vital information
about the position and velocity of cars.
If I was conversing with some sort of intelligent system, I would
convey meaning not only by the use of the language of discourse, but
also by the use of vocal inflection and facial signals. It often the
case that we still use visual language whilst talking on the telephone.
It also seems that the `language of discourse' is important. English is
renowned for its rich vocabulary, but it is possible to express some
subtle ideas more succinctly in other languages.
Gordon Joly -- {seismo,ucbvax,decvax}!mcvax!ukc!warwick!gordon
Meta-Story. When I want to describe a cat, I say the word "cat". Every
child knows what I mean by the word cat. "Teach me cat..." OK, here we
go, lets see what the dictionary says.
"cat" - feline creature. OK what's "feline"?
"feline" - catlike. Could someone please show me a cat?
Well, we are not getting very far with this. Lets try some other words.
Look up "gweek". Ah, yes, thats clear enough - "coathanger used as car
aerial".
Now look up "liff"...
The Joka (pronounced joker).gordon@warwick.UUCP (Gordon Joly) (05/12/86)
Apologies, I meant net.nlang NOT net.lang. Please ammend any followup.
Gordon Joly -- {seismo,ucbvax,decvax}!mcvax!ukc!warwick!gordon