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Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

learnthesewordsfirst.com

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Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#31

Post by dredmorbius »

raldi wrote: post #18
skeoh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The definition proposed doesn't differ strongly from 1913 Webster:

Of or pertaining to that side of the body in man on which the muscular action is usually stronger than on the other side; -- opposed to left when used in reference to a part of the body; as, the right side, hand, arm. Also applied to the corresponding side of the lower animals.

http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=rig...

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#32

Post by pushpop »

raldi wrote: post #16
naikrovek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That’s an about page. If you go to the home page then you can see those words:

http://learnthesewordsfirst.com/

The site isn’t the prettiest nor most logically laid out but the link to the words themselves was pretty clearly labelled (in my opinion).

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#33

Post by flukus »

Animats wrote: 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…

I'd love to see if there's an interesting relationship between these words and the PIE language (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language)

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#34

Post by scarejunba »

grenoire wrote: 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?)

It's at most the same as this dictionary surely but once you've defined a word and "English", you just say:

Jour. N. The same meaning as the English word 'day'.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#35

Post by ISL »

raldi wrote: post #29
ISL wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To tell an alien about handedness definitively, without an artifact, may require that both parties are aware of the CP-violation present in the weak interaction. Put another way, how can we know that aliens won't reconstruct an electromagnetic message as a mirror image of what we sent?

Make use of the right-hand rule, which will suffice so long as they're not made of antimatter.

How will they know we're not made of antimatter?

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#36

Post by underyx »

raldi wrote: post #27
freyr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 firs…

Sure, but "go ask a bunch of people which hand they write with" seems like a huge copout to me. It's like if prime numbers were defined as, "The numbers most mathematicians say are prime."

So how would you propose to explain which side is which?

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#38

Post by masklinn »

raldi wrote: post #18
skeoh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The actual dictionary definition uses the normal position of the heart instead (though it assumes no situs inversus): https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/left

It links to definitions for some sub-concepts (e.g. containing or heart) but oddly enough not others (e.g. body), I'm guessing because body is part of the core 360 words.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#39

Post by benj111 »

ISL wrote: post #35
raldi wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make use of the right-hand rule, which will suffice so long as they're not made of antimatter.

How will they know we're not made of antimatter?

Aren't matter and antimatter a matter of perspective? If so haven't we just reintroduced the left/right problem.
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