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Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

learnthesewordsfirst.com

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Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#11
post #10
post #5

The 60 words: to see, saw, seen. thing, something, what. this, these. the other, another, else, is the same as, be, am, are, being, was, were. one of. two of. person, people. many of, much of. inside. not, do not, does not, did not, some of. all of. there is, there are. more than, live, alive. big. small. very, kind of. if, then. touch. far from. near to, in a place, someplace, where. above. on a side of, hear, heard…

How would you define left and right based on these words?

Why don't you follow the link and find out?

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#12
post #2

Has there been any attempts to 'translate' this into other languages? I'm struggling most often with vocabulary first, whereas the grammar is much easier for me to grasp (programming helps?)

Seconded, I _need_ this for German.

The objects in the pictures would need to be built to higher mechanical specifications first. ;)

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#13
This is very interesting -- a kind of topological sort of the dictionary.

It seems like a very natural thing to want to do with subject-specific glossaries as well. Often when I approach a new topic or hobby I want a glossary of all the jargon up front, and I want the words ordered from least to most demanding of in-knowledge.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#14
post #10
post #5

The 60 words: to see, saw, seen. thing, something, what. this, these. the other, another, else, is the same as, be, am, are, being, was, were. one of. two of. person, people. many of, much of. inside. not, do not, does not, did not, some of. all of. there is, there are. more than, live, alive. big. small. very, kind of. if, then. touch. far from. near to, in a place, someplace, where. above. on a side of, hear, heard…

How would you define left and right based on these words?

[deleted]

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#15
post #10
post #5

The 60 words: to see, saw, seen. thing, something, what. this, these. the other, another, else, is the same as, be, am, are, being, was, were. one of. two of. person, people. many of, much of. inside. not, do not, does not, did not, some of. all of. there is, there are. more than, live, alive. big. small. very, kind of. if, then. touch. far from. near to, in a place, someplace, where. above. on a side of, hear, heard…

How would you define left and right based on these words?

From http://learnthesewordsfirst.com/Lesson-12F.html#12-21

12-20. right.

[X is on the right side of your body.] = X is on this side of your body: Most people write using the hand they have on this side of their body.

[I use my right hand when I draw pictures.]

12-21. left.

[X is on the left side of your body.] = X is on this side of your body: Most people do not write using the hand they have on this side of their body. They write using their other hand.

[My child held my left hand.]

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#16
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you define left and right based on these words?

Why don't you follow the link and find out?

I asked because I followed the link and couldn't figure it out. I couldn't even find the list of 60 words, and clearly I'm not alone as evidenced by the fact that the top of this thread is the top-ranked comment.

Also, please reread https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#17
If true, this is interesting from an academic perspective: word meanings can be derived from a space of 60 dimensions. But I’m not still not convinced of the value with respect to language learning.

Learning how language is spoken from the fundamental 60 words sounds like trying to learn mathematics from its fundamental axioms. It seems like you might just get caught in a long list of definitions where you might be faster off trying to internalise some higher level useful concepts first.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#18
post #15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you define left and right based on these words?

From http://learnthesewordsfirst.com/Lesson-12F.html#12-21 12-20. right. [X is on the right side of your body.] = X is on this side of your body: Most people write using the hand they have on this side of their body. [I use my right hand when I draw pictures.] 12-21. left. [X is on the left side of your body.] = X is on this side of your body: Most people do not write using the hand they have on this side of their bo…

I would think a true minimum set of bootstrapping words would be enough to teach the language to hypothetical aliens who might not have access to a group of humans to poll about handedness.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#19
post #10
post #5

The 60 words: to see, saw, seen. thing, something, what. this, these. the other, another, else, is the same as, be, am, are, being, was, were. one of. two of. person, people. many of, much of. inside. not, do not, does not, did not, some of. all of. there is, there are. more than, live, alive. big. small. very, kind of. if, then. touch. far from. near to, in a place, someplace, where. above. on a side of, hear, heard…

How would you define left and right based on these words?

The dictionary starts with those 60 words, like axioms in mathematics. Then it builds up a vocabulary on top of them.

Left is defined this way: [X is on the right side of your body.] = X is on this side of your body: Most people write using the hand they have on this side of their body.

So "on a side of", "people", "be/is", are included in those first 60 words. "body", "write", "hand", etc. are defined after the first 60 words, but before "right" and "left".

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