Representations Floyd Nelson A.D 2009 December 28

Ways to Communicate Sound Sight – gestures – facial expressions – symbols – letters From any conscious input the AIS has. – pressure (touch) – temperature Animate and inanimate objects can “communicate” or have representation. – Seeing a lot of things in a garbage can communicates to you “the garbage can is full”

Linguistic Ideas Characters – letters – phonetic sounds Semantics – smallest parts of words that have meaning Syntax – grammar – word order Context – communication from another source – “That dog ran”; context will tell you which dog ran. Human languages typically have between 1,500 (Lojban) to 250,000 (English) words. – French and Spanish have about 100,000 words – When scientific words are included there may be more than 1,000,000 words in English – An average educated person knows 20,000 words and uses 2,000 words each week. /2001/JohnnyLing.shtml /2001/JohnnyLing.shtml – There are many more representations than words in the English language.

Sounds There are about 30 to 55 common sounds used in languages. About 13 of those sounds are vowels. Diphthongs are like two sounds fused together. – j: d zh – oi: Ø i – ou: a Ø – x: k s Humans have mechanical methods of making sounds which limits the number of sounds they can make (Good or Bad?). Lyre bird (many sounds)

Types of sentences Question- ? – Will you give me $5? Statement-. – She is giving me $5. Command- ! – Give me $5! Any type of sentence can be converted to a statement – SO, the AIS is able to think in terms of statements without thinking in terms of commands or questions. Question: Do you like french-fries? She wants me to tell her whether or not I like french-fries. Command: Go to your room! He wants me to go to my room.

Types of words Noun – used for the subject of a sentence Adjective – describes a noun Verb – used for the predicate of a sentence Adverb – describes a verb *Every type of word has an “image” of something and what it is doing – something can be ”nothing” – doing can be “nothing” Conjunctions join sentences/fragments together

Common Words is of – detail of broad – broad from detail the – not a necessary word – noun prefix to – verb prefix The flower is red. – flower red. The red flower is big. – flower red big. The red of the flower is dark. – The red is dark of the flower. – red dark flower. Abstract types of words – direction: left, up – shapes: circle, cube – scale: large, small – color: green, yellow – senses…: pressure, temperature – scientific measures…: grams, meters – time: past, future – number: two, seventy four – emotion: happy, funny – informal v formal: here v. there, this v. that – male v female: he v she, (Spanish) el v la

Question words Who – what person/animal/machine What – what thing Where – what location When – what time Why – what is the cause of (mentally) How – what is the cause of (physically) How many – what number Which – what of who, what, where, and when are related why and how are related which, and how many are partly related Every question word can be replaced with the question word: what.

The concept of nothing All subjects can never do nothing, unless the subject does not exist. He is doing nothing. – He is actually sitting/laying/standing still. – If he has became dust, and the dust is not him, and he has no afterlife, then he is doing nothing. Nothing can run. – “Nothing” is the subject, so this usage is okay. Nothing  0 There is no (nothing) water in the cup. – There is 0 grams of water in the cup. I feel no pressure. – I feel pressure. The amount of pressure I feel is 0 Pascal's. – If I am incapable of sensing pressure, then the pressure I feel is nothing.

Connections Dog – You think of images of dogs and what you know that dogs do Running – You think of an object or objects that can “run”. – Humans can run, but so can dogs and computers (metaphorically). The dog is running – You imagine only a dog that is running. Gitchúby – You imagine only a pineapple falling, because I defined gitchuby to mean “pineapple falling”. – One word can have both a noun and verb part. Sherkúlock – You imagine the sounds of sherkulock, what makes those sounds, and the ideas you have involving those sounds, because I have not defined sherkulock. – A “word” can have “no known meaning”.

Connections part II an object can represent a – object – representation – function/algorithm

Theory of Language All language must communicate a comparison between two or more things. A comparison may be a function like ≥ or Types of functions – assignment – declaration* – testing – selecting Thing: parts are learned from experience Concept: a combination of parts of things You possess your foot, but your foot also posses you. You possess your foot, arm, and head. Feet possess you, dogs, and cats.