Re: [ontolog-forum] LInked Data meme revisited

[William Frank <williamf.frank@xxxxxxxxx>]

Or, as Mark Twain translated from German, "The girl went to the cellar to get a turnip, and then it ate her."

(The influx of non-native speakers into Germany seems to be weakening gender and case there right now.)

I agree with John, variables are the way to go, but first, we need to disambiguate the English.
 

On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 5:45 PM, John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 12/14/2013 8:24 AM, Ron Wheeler wrote:
> I have always wondered about a couple of odd English
> language characteristics
>
> 1) When and how did it lose genders for nouns?

See
http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/middle-english-an-overview/

The reason for keeping the distinctions is to reduce ambiguities.
For example, consider the sentence

    I put the book on the table,
    but because it was not level, it slid off.

Question:  What slid off what?

In French, the book (le livre) is masculine, and the table (la table) is
feminine.  If we write the sentence with French articles and pronouns,

    I put le book on la table,
    but because elle was not level, il slid off.

we (and our computers) can resolve the ambiguity by syntax alone.

But this doesn't eliminate all ambiguities.  If I put la plume
de ma tante sur la table, syntax alone couldn't determine whether
the pen, the table, or my aunt slid off.

That's why I recommend variables in controlled NLs:

    I put the pen x of my aunt y on the table z,
    but because z was not level, x slid off.

> 2) When and how did all the verbs except "to be" and "to have" get
> simplified?

Most verbs are regular -- that's the definition of 'regular':  using the
most common paradigm.  Infants learn the most common paradigm first.
The others are harder to learn and the first to be forgotten.

The verb 'have' is only slightly irregular.  But 'be' is the result of
a clash of different verbs with different paradigms.  Since it is so
common, infants learn all the options early and never forget them.

> The requirement for an "s" at the end of the verb in the third person
> singular is another oddity.

That's two questions:  (a) Where did the S come from?  (b) Why did it
remain while the other verb inflections were lost?

In typical Indo-European languages (e.g., Latin, German, and Russian),
the verb ending for third-person singular present tense is T.

But "mater" in Latin, "mutter" in German, and "mat'" in Russian
correspond to "mother" in English.  Therefore, the verb endings were

    I give.  Thou givest.  He, she, or it giveth.

That paradigm survived through middle English into early modern English.
But note that an unvoiced TH sounds a lot like S, and a voiced TH sounds
a lot like Z.  Furthermore, S and Z are easier to pronounce, especially
for an infant who is just learning a language.  (Also note that Z in
Castilian is pronounced /th/, but /s/ in other Spanish dialects.)

Therefore, infants would say /gives/ before learning to say /giveth/.
That variant probably arose spontaneously in one or more dialects at
a time when nobody bothered to correct anything spoken in English.

Instead of asking why S remained for third-person singular, I would
restate the question:  Why did the endings for first- and second-person
singular and plural get lost?

Answer:  First- and second-person verbs occur immediately next to
a pronoun:  'I', 'thou', 'we', or 'you'.  Therefore, the ending
is unnecessary to avoid ambiguity.

But the subject of a third-person verb may be a noun in the middle
of a complex phrase.  Therefore, the presence or absence of S on
the verb can help clarify which noun is the subject.

John

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