Basic Words
A MINIMAL SET OF WORDS THAT
GENERATES the WORLD
Anil MITRA, ©
2001 - June 2002
CONTENTS
Topics
and Words to be Explained
A minimal set of words and other language elements to express local and universal ontologies; and the action of an individual being living luxuriantly in its own domain and in knowing and becoming ultimate being.
It is not meaningful to consider object, concept
and word separately – here, concept includes percept and, naturally, feeling…
and “object” is used in a general way to include process, quality, relationship
and function. Concept is the way in which object is known – on a
representational view. Or, on a presentational view, concept is object.
Therefore, on the latter view it is not meaningful to consider concept and world
separately. In some views word and object or word and concept are identical or
equivalent; these include analytic philosophy and the concept of “mantra.” In
any case, from onomatopoeia and psychology, word and object or word and concept
are closely bound in human mind.
The world is not understood merely as a collection
of objects; it is a whole. And the holism derives not only interaction but also
from the mutuality of existence. Therefore, the meaning of a concept cannot be
given without a metaphysics of a system of objects. But there is no given
metaphysics that is generally agreed upon [except, see, metaphysics of presence
in Metaphysics]
and therefore there is an empirical element to meaning. We knew this anyway,
but the empirical element in question here is essential.
Origins in communication, see Kinds of
Knowledge. Sign and symbol. Word and pictograph
Theory: language, syntax, semantics, linguistics,
semiotics.
Generators: iconic elements, syllable and
syllabary, alphabet
Compound word generators: word, word stem, prefix,
infix, suffix
Generators: varieties of form based in
metaphysics: declension, inflected forms
Object, relationship, process and the
generalization to being, meaning, action
Quality – property – and number
Element and combination
Object: kind of object and specific object [noun
and name]
Everyday language is the base; then consider a
metaphysics - what are the categories required to depict and describe that
metaphysics - rendered in language. With regard to foundations - 1.
Metaphysics, 2. Metaphysics )r( language or directly )r(
language. Formalization, completeness and consistency, other meta-issues. Is
there a need for depiction?
Local metaphysics - intrinsic being
Universal metaphysics - Being, Meaning, and Action
There is an essential connection between language
and metaphysics.
"Language is thoroughly indeterminate, by
reason of the fact that every occurrence presupposes some systematic type of
environment." "A precise language must await a completed metaphysical
knowledge." The words of Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929
express the connection between metaphysics and language and an indeterminacy in
language. Any essential incompleteness in metaphysics represents a further
limit to the determinacy of language.
What is metaphysics? It is knowledge of the world
as world. It includes the remote but also what is so common as to remain
unnoticed - seen but unrecognized; it infuses each moment, each place, each
life. It is omni-present in an unquestioning being in the world.
When we consider the most present and most basic
elements of life - waking up in the morning, love, war, idyllic peace, a
moment, an intention, the sum of a life we find, on a simple analysis that
there are objects, relationships, action which includes change.
Language is a way to express these possibilities.
Thus being-relationship-action leads to nouns, verbs and so on. It is easy to
give explanation to other parts of speech and language elements.
However, it is not that simple. Is being-relation-action
an adequate expression of the metaphysical possibilities and is language as
conceived in its descriptive and prescriptive aspects adequate to any given
metaphysical expression? And is there any need for language to completely cover
metaphysical possibility? If knowledge of the world in its details and general
character is in evolution, is not some flexibility in language, some
under-specification a good thing?
Metaphysics is never quite right or complete. What
is the "being of entities," "What is the nature of being,"
and "What is the nature of the question on the nature of being?" That
is the spirit of Heidegger - the last question is mine. Even if we hold with
Wittgenstein that it is all visible and that is all that needs to be made clear
- the only thing to be explained is that there is no explanation or need for
explanation, then that process in a state of incompletion.
Because of common context there may be seen to be
some universality in description, in discussion and in education - and that can
benefit communication in the common realm but also limit exploration beyond
that realm. Before grammar the question does not arise.
Thus the following is seen to be true. Language is
an open model for metaphysics; it is not exact and it allows for experiment and
tinkering - this before syntax and its concretization, e.g., in the outline or
details of the being-relationship-action model. Language continues to become
refined in that process even though there is, naturally, a plateau that is common
to all languages corresponding somewhat to a common stage of human being and
action.
There is almost no point to a merely empirical
study of language - but is there such a thing as a merely empirical study? We
may think that we are doing an empirical study but that is only superficial.
Varieties of linguistic expression: declarative or
assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, declarative (two-way fit); the
related mental attitudes; origin; organic foundation and hierarchy.
Generating knowledge
Semiotic
The sentence, the proposition, the unit of meaning
and use and their philosophy
Common definitions of the proposition are given in
Kinds
of Knowledge - a proposition is the primary bearer of truth; the meaning of
a declarative sentence or, alternatively, a declarative sentence. A canonical
form for the proposition is the subject-predicate form; this may be too
limiting.
Propositional attitudes
are generalizations from propositions in more than one way. First: an attitude
need not count as knowledge as, say, in justified true belief; rather the propositional
attitude may be one of belief, intrinsic knowledge state, action-base,
intrinsic truth state and so on. Second, the form need not be that of the
declarative sentence or even of proposition; it may be a visual picture of how
the world is - and that may entail a basis for action, an intrinsic knowledge
state... What do I mean intrinsic knowledge state? In everyday action we feel,
without any necessary further reflection or analysis, without question a
certain way about our pictures or propositions about the world; in day to day
communication and action, for all practical purposes there is sometimes that
unreflective intrinsic feeling "this is knowledge" - that is the
intrinsic knowledge state. Further an attitude need have no direction of fit
such as word to world and so on.
Signs, symbols and proto-language
Phoneme, syllable, word, phrase, clause - simple,
complex and compound, sentence, paragraph, stanza, verse, chapter, text;
presentational form
Varieties of speech act - and types of sentence
A symbol representing a speech sound and
constituting a unit of an alphabet
Set of symbols or characters that represent the
sounds of a language. Each character in an alphabet usually represents a simple
vowel, a diphthong, or a consonant. "Alphabet" sometimes includes the
concept of syllabaries.
A set of written symbols that represent the
syllables of the words of a language... Writing systems that use syllabaries at
least in part include Japanese, Cherokee, ancient Cretan scripts (linear A and
linear B), and Indic and cuneiform systems.
Smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word
from another, e.g. the sound f distinguishes "fat" from
"pat" and "bat". A phoneme may have more than one variant
sound, called an allophone that has no significance.
A segment of speech that consists of a vowel, with
or without one or more accompanying consonant sounds immediately preceding or
following--for example, a, I, out, too, cap, snap, check. Any more precise
definition of the syllable in phonetics and phonology a matter of debate
A speech sound or series of speech sounds that
symbolizes and communicates a meaning without being divisible into smaller
units capable of independent use; or the entire set of linguistic forms
produced by combining a single base with various inflectional elements without
change in the part of speech elements.
A word or group of words forming a syntactic
constituent with a single grammatical function e.g. an adverbial phrase.
A word, clause, or phrase or a group of clauses or
phrases forming a syntactic unit which expresses an assertion, a question, a
command, a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action, that in
writing usually begins with a capital letter and concludes with appropriate end
punctuation, and that in speaking is distinguished by characteristic patterns
of stress, pitch, and pauses.
A group of words containing a subject and
predicate and functioning as a member of a complex or compound sentence
A subdivision of a written composition that
consists of one or more sentences, deals with one point or gives the words of
one speaker.
A main division of a book
A treatise or literary work a major division of a
treatise or literary work
Something written or spoken considered as an
object to be examined, explicated, or deconstructed.
Sentence construction, the way sentences are
constructed; the rules of sentence construction
Generative grammar: a set of rules whose output is
all and only the permissible sentences of a language
Prescriptive grammar: exposition of rules based on
correct or incorrect usage
A general meaning for grammar: the elements of any
science, art, or subject
Wittgenstein's use:
The first meaning of grammar, above
The wffs [well formed formulas] of a logical
system, study of the same; the rules that generate such a system
Period
Comma
Question mark
Interjection mark
Colon
Semi-colon
End marks: paragraph, chapter, text...
Describing - nice day, best student
Delimiting - other years, some
people
Quantifying - one dog, all things, some
fruit
Adjectival - functioning as or forming an
adjective phrase, clause
Adverbial
Nominative or subjective - indicating the subject
of a finite verb
Objective - indicating the object of a transitive
verb or possession
Possessive - indicating possession, ownership,
origin
Ablative - indicating the starting point of an
action
Accusative - indicating the direct object of a
verb or certain prepositions
A small number of words - connectors between words,
phrases, clauses or sentences. Examples: and, but, because, unless
To occur in a sentence without a normally
[expected] syntactic relation to the rest of the sentence, e.g., the word turning
in "Turning the bend the mountain appeared." is dangling.
Nouns - plural
Verbs - past tense
Adjectives: comparative, superlative
Words typically used in grammatical isolation to
express feeling, emotion: Ouch! Oh! Hey! Ugh!
Nouns function as the subject or object in a construction
- typically things [persons, places, animals...], states, qualities e.g.
darkness
Proper, common
Mass, countable
Name, person, gender, number
Gerund n [LL gerundium, fr. L
gerundus, gerundive of gerere to bear, carry on] (1513) 1: a verbal noun in
Latin that expresses generalized or uncompleted action 2: any of several
linguistic forms analogous to the Latin gerund in languages other than Latin;
esp: the English verbal noun in -ing that has the function of a substantive and
at the same time shows the verbal features of tense, voice, and capacity to
take adverbial qualifiers and to govern objects
Complex gerundive...
A pronoun is one of a small group of words
"used as replacements or substitutes for nouns or noun phrases mentioned
in or understood from the context and having very general reference".
Examples: I, you, he, she, them, this, who, what, it...
He - nominative or subjective
His - possessive
Him - subjective
Prepositions are typically used before nouns,
pronouns or other substantives to form phrases with adverbial, nominal or
adjectival function
The main element of a predicate, typically
expressing action, state, or a relation between two things, formally
distinguished as being inflected for tense, aspect, voice, mood or agreement
with the subject or object
Finite verb, transitive / intransitive verbs
Infinitive n (1530): a verb form
normally identical in English with the first person singular that performs some
functions of a noun and at the same time displays some characteristics of a
verb and that is used with to (as in "I asked him to go") except with
auxiliary and various other verbs (as in "no one saw him leave")
Split infinitive n (1897): an
infinitive with to having a modifier between the to and the verbal (as in
"to really start")
Usage The split infinitive
was discovered and named in the 19th century. 19th century writers seem to have
made greater use of this construction than earlier writers; the frequency of
occurrence attracted the disapproving attention of grammarians, many of whom
thought it to be a modern corruption. The construction had in fact been in
occasional use since the 14th century; only its frequency had changed. Even
though there has never been a rational basis for objecting to the split
infinitive, the subject has become a fixture of folk belief about grammar. You
can hardly publish a sentence containing one without hearing about it from
somebody. Modern commentators know the split infinitive is not a vice, but they
are loath to drop such a popular subject. They usu. say it's all right to split
an infinitive in the interest of clarity. Since clarity is the usual reason for
splitting, this advice means merely that you can split them whenever you need
to.
Participle n [ME, fr. MF, modif. of L
participium, fr. particip-, particeps] (14c): a word having the characteristics
of both verb and adjective; esp: an English verbal form that has the function
of an adjective and at the same time shows such verbal features as tense and
voice and capacity to take an object
Perfect participle
n (1862): past participle [a participle that typically expresses completed
action, that is traditionally one of the principal parts of the verb, and that
is traditionally used in English in the formation of perfect tenses in the
active voice and of all tenses in the passive voice]
Present participle
n (1864): a participle that typically expresses present action in relation to the
time expressed by the finite verb in its clause and that in English is formed
with the suffix -ing and is used in the formation of the progressive tenses
Past participle n (1798): a
participle that typically expresses completed action, that is traditionally one
of the principal parts of the verb, and that is traditionally used in English
in the formation of perfect tenses in the active voice and of all tenses in the
passive voice
Figures of speech: metaphor, simile, hyperbole
BE and sources for metaphysics; philosophy of
language and linguistics; epistemology and logic.
Find sources / contacts; review and work through
concept )r( implementation)r(
topics)r( sources.
This is developed in interaction with the above
considerations, especially in ongoing interaction with the empirical level -
use and the theoretical level - metaphysics.