27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Redundancy of English language is a Goldilocks zone for C...
In Shannon’s terms, the feature of messages that makes codecracking possible is redundancy. A historian of cryptography, David Kahn, explained it like this: “Roughly, redundancy means that more symbols are transmitted in a message than are actually needed to bear the information.” Information resolves our uncertainty; redundancy is every part of a message that tells us nothing new. Whenever we can guess what comes next, we’re in the presence of redundancy. Letters can be redundant: be... 1 
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notes27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Redundancy in the English Language
Whenever we communicate, rules everywhere restrict our freedom to choose the next letter and the next pineapple.I Because these rules render certain patterns more likely and certain patterns almost impossible, languages like English come well short of complete uncertainty and maximal information: the sequence “th” has already occurred 6,431 times in this book, the sequence “tk” just this once. From the perspective of the information theorist, our languages are hugely predictable— al... 1 notes
notesMonte Carlo method for building words and sentences.
25 FEB 2016 by ideonexus
Recognizing Code Switching as Valid Communication
“I ain’t mad atcha” or “I am not angry with you.” Which should you say? Well, we’re teachers. Our quick response: “The latter.” Grammar and usage are typical components of speech rubrics— topics students need to think about as part of building a spoken presentation. But that doesn’t mean it’s always correct to choose “proper” grammatical constructions. The correct response to the question above is actually another question altogether: “Who is the audience?”
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notes21 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Spelling and Grammar is Ancestor Worship
The fetishization of "correct" English -- which is to say, white, wealthy English -- is in direct opposition to everything that makes English such a glorious drunkard's debauch of a language.
English came to us from the inventive malapropism and linguistic entrepreneurship of its speakers: from Shakespeare, who coined words wholesale; to the working-class streets with their heterodox cursing and rhyming slangs.
To demand the immobilization of this restless, incontinent language is a form of b...
1 31 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Plural of Thrips
Much the same can be said of the Thrips, those tiny plant insects that haven't so much as a decent singular to their name, one wished to specify an individual Thrips. You may speak many Thrips, or of one Thrips, but never of one Thrip, how strongly you may feel that such a ruling is in restraint of 'our personal liberties. Nor may you employ the word Thripses to mean one or more Thrips, convenient as it might be in a pinch. The New English Dictionary states, with what end in view I don't know... 1 notes
notes19 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
The Fundamental Units of Lojban
bridi - relationshipsselbri - the kind of relationsumti - describe the relation
bridi are composed of two different units: all bridi must have a selbri and any given amount of sumti
Examples:
x1 gives x2 to x3
mi dunda ti do
do - you
mi - me
ti - this (as in this thing here in my hands or near me)
x1 is a friend of x2
mi pendo do
x1 is blue
ti blanu
x1 talks to x2 about subject x3 in language x4
mi tavla do do
(I'm talking to you about you)
words that are 1-4 letters can be sumti
words... 1 notes
notesBasic overview of grammar.
28 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Three Words Used in a List That Provides Examples of Each
When you say exergasia, synathroesmus, and incrementum together in a list, it seems to me that you have thereby given an example of all three devices in that same phrase.”
Swan snorted at this. “How so, Socrates?”
“ ‘Exergasia’ means ‘use of different phrases to express the same idea,’ ‘synathroesmus’ means ‘accumulation by enumeration,’ and ‘incrementum’ means ‘piling up points to make an argument.’ So listing them does all three, yes?”
“And what argume...Folksonomies: grammar
Folksonomies: grammar
1 notes
notesA clever bit of dialogue between an AI and its owner.
11 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
How Many Vowels in the English Language?
No, the answer is not: “Five: a, e, i, o u.” Granted, in traditional English spelling those are the vowel letters, yes, but I’m talking about our spoken language: How many significant vowel sounds are there? Well, if you consult any popular American English dictionary, and study the Pronunciation Key, there will be a long list of vowels. In the Pronunciation Key to the American Heritage Dictionary, 19 different vowel symbols are listed (not counting the ones only used in foreign words)!... 1 notes
notesNot five, but considered phonetically there are 19.
28 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Common Spelling/Grammar Mistakes
To lay is to place something or put something down, and it must be followed by a noun or pronoun, a thing; to lie is to recline. A lie is an untruth, and to lie also means "to tell an untruth." Examples: Lay that package on the mantel, will you please? Bridgette would like to lie in the hammock near the pool. Sometimes it's tempting to lie when you're in trouble, but a lie only makes things worse. (Hint:Lay sounds like place; lie sounds like recline. But be careful: lay ...These examples are not on pedantic, but further demonstrate the nonsensical nature of English spelling, so convoluted as to turn people away from the lexicon.
24 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Myth of the Educated Parent
Remarkably enough, the most obvious influence over children's language development turned out to be the mere amount of parents' talking; children whose parents addressed or responded to them more in early life had larger, faster-growing vocabularies and scored higher on IQ tests than children whose parents spoke fewer words to them overall. Parents who talk more inevitably expose their children to a greater variety of words and sentences, so a correlation also turned up between the diversity ...Controlling for socioeconomic status does show that children whose parents are higher on the education ladder will have better grammar; however, parenting style is a much better predictor of a child's improvement than income.
