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No diff available.Table of Contents for Programming Languages: a survey
This part covers other ways of representing information outside of programming languages.
It may seem odd to put information about non-programming languages and philosophy in a book about programming languages, but perhaps they can serve as inspiration.
In mathematics, a symbol is the type of thing out of which strings are built. A set of formal symbols is referred to as an alphabet.
An expression is a finite string of symbols that is syntactically valid.
Terms are expressions that represent objects from the domain of discourse [1].
well-formed formula, abbreviated 'wff' or 'formula', is string that is a syntactically valid and that can semantically stand on its own, except that it may have variables.
An atomic formula is a wff that has no strict subwffs [2]. Typically, an atomic formula is built by applying a predicate to a term (or more generally, applying a relation to a set of terms).
Non-atomic formulas are built from atomic formulas by applying logical connectives nor quantifiers.
A sentence is a wff with no free variables. Typically, in logic, sentences are interpreted as propositions, that is, things for which it makes sense to ask "is it true?" well-formed formula.
Some but not all of the text in this section consists of quotes from the indicated links.
In linguistics, a grapheme is roughly equivalent to what in computing is called a character.
A morpheme is a component of a word, for example 'jump' or 'ed'. A morpheme which cannot stand alone as a word itself is called a bound morpheme. I don't understand the distinction between affix and bound morpheme.
A lexeme is the set of forms taken by a single word; for example, 'run', 'runs', 'ran' and 'running' are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN. The term 'lexical' means relating to words. A lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes and bound morphemes.
A word is the smallest element that may be uttered in isolation, for example 'jumped'. A role that a word plays in its parent sentence/phrase/clause is a part-of-speech.
A phrases is a single word or group of words that functions as a constituent (unit) in the syntactical structure of the sentence; for example the noun phrase 'the orange bird'. A role that a phrase plays in its parent sentence/phrase/clause is a "phrasal category".
A clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. A typical clause consists of a subject and a verb phrase. A phrase appears within a clause (although it is also possible for a phrase to be a clause or to contain a clause within it). Many clauses can stand alone as sentences (those that cannot are called subordinate clauses).
Clause(s) go together into sentences.
Various items from the above can be placed in various grammatical categories such as tense, gender, mood.
(tangentially, a phoneme is a concept for spoken language that corresponds to a grapheme in written language (i do not mean that each phoneme has a corresponding grapheme, just that the role of phonemes within the conceptual structure of linguistics is similar to the role of graphemes). Note that a character has different visual representations in different fonts; an individual font's representation of a given character is called a 'glyph'. Different glyphs which represent the same graphemes are called allographs (and different sounds ('phones') that represent the same phoneme are called allophones) (see also [3]).)
Some but not all of the text in this section consists of quotes from the indicated links.
Semiotics is the study of things like signs, symbols, interpretations, and meaning.
Saussure's theory of semiotics has two things involved in the sign relation, the signifier, and its meaning (the signified). The 'signifier' is something that we perceive that makes us think of something, for instance, the string of letters "c a t". The meaning of a sign (the 'signified') is the concept that appears in our mind when we perceive the sign; this is distinct from the object out in the world, if any, that this concept represents (the 'referent'). Saussure used the term 'sign' to encompass the pair of the signifier and the signified. "According to him, language is made up of signs and every sign has two sides (like a coin or a sheet of paper, both sides of which are inseparable)" -- [4].
Pierce's theory (see also [5] [6]) is triadic; the 'sign' is (roughly) something that makes us think of something; the 'object' is (roughly) the thing to which the sign refers, and the 'interpretant' is the thing that is perceiving the sign and interpreting it as referring to the object. Pierce, however, attempted to define this in a more general way that did not rely upon the concept of human thought; he said, "a sign is something, A, which brings something, B, its interpretant sign determined or created by it, into the same sort of correspondence with something, C, its object, as that in which itself stands to C." In other words, when we see the word 'cat', (part of) our mind is itself turned into a sign for cats. Watch out, I may be totally misunderstanding this.
Some but not all of the text in this section consists of quotes from the indicated links.
There are some words that are have conflicting meanings in these domains, and also some different words that mean similar or analogous things.
In computer science, a word usually means an architecture-specific fixed-size group of digits (usually binary bits) that are processed as a unit by the hardware. Computer science's 'word' is related to the linguistic definition, in that a computer's hardware often cannot efficiently store and process data smaller than its word size.
The logic and computer science term syntax (see also [7]) means the set of rules for correctly structured documents without regard to any interpretation or meaning given to them. In computer science, 'grammar' refers to a set of production rules for strings. In linguistics, 'grammar' is a set of structural rules governing composition, and 'syntax' is the subset of grammar governing linguistic structure above the word level [8] (morphology is linguistic structure at the word level and below]).
In programming languages, 'lexeme' is sometimes used to mean a string of characters which forms a syntactic unit. Note that this conflicts with the linguistic definition of lexeme; instead, it roughly corresponds with a linguistic word, although it could also correspond to a (bound) morpheme.
In programming languages, 'lexemes' are categorized. A token is a structure representating a lexeme that explicitly indicates its categorization for the purpose of parsing. The categories of tokens are roughly equivalent to linguistic parts-of-speech.
Note that a programming language 'token' is not the same as a token-ring token, a security token, etc.
In computers, 'text' is a type of value, usually used interchangably with 'string'; in literary theory, it can mean any object that can be "read".
In mathematics and often in programming languages, 'composition' is shorthand for 'function composition', which is when one a function is defined as the result of applying a second function to the output of a third function. In general use, 'composition' can also mean 'a work of art' or it can mean 'what something is made of' or 'the way in which something is made up'.
In philosophy, a token is an instance of a type.
A logical 'term' corresponds to a linguistic noun phrase, and a logical sentence corresponds to a linguistic sentence (although these are not synonyms; i just mean that their role within the larger theories are analogous).
Some but not all of the text in this section consists of quotes from the indicated links.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_primes#List_of_semantic_primes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_universal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_semantic_metalanguage#Semantic_primitives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_relation#Major_thematic_relations
[9], sections "Use easy words" and "Other basic/simplified/controlled languages"
Yerkish, a constructed language for communication with non-human primates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Systems_Language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IConji
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blissymbols
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_symbols#Symbol_block_list
http://talkdifferent.com/en/talkdifferent/
reactions gifs:
Brown's fish, snake, bird, wug (worm+bug), mammal:
Brown's tree, grass, bush, vine, herbaceous plant (and 'grerb' for the union of 'herbaceous plant' and 'grass'):
possible sources of other similar work:
list of 16 adverbial subordinators, taken from Helen Eaton's 1000 most frequently used items [10]:
time:
modal:
ccc:
later(?) he made a list of 32 [11]:
all of the above, plus:
time:
modal:
ccc:
other:
[12] also contains potentially useful notes on the semantic constraints upon each of these (pages thru xiv-xix; pdf pages 14-19)
See [13]
quotes below are from A Formal Universal Systems Semantics for SysML:
USL's three primitive control structures (some details, such as related to ordering and comprehensiveness, omitted): these are 3 ways for a parent function 'parent' to call two child functions A and B as subroutines:
Note that these appear to correspond to the programming language primitives of compositions, projections, and conditionals.
FMaps and TMaps: FMaps relate to dynamics, TMaps related to statics (eg containment of one object by another). "For example, in an FMap, an output variable of any function is fully traceable to all other functions that use the state that variable refers to." "FMaps are used for defining functions and their relationships to other functions using the types of objects in the TMap(s). Each function on an FMap has one or more objects as its input and one or more objects as its output. Each object resides in an object map¹ (OMap¹) and is a member of a type from a TMap. TMaps are used for defining types and their relationships to other types. Every type on a TMap owns a set of inherited primitive operations for its allowed FMap primitive functional relationships."
a "function is a hybrid consisting of a traditional mathematical construct, i.e., an operation (mapping) and a linguistic construct, i.e., an assignment of particular variables to inputs and outputs."
Six axioms:
" Some implications of both axioms 3 and 4 are: the variables of the output set of a function cannot be the variables of the input set of that same function. If f(y, x) = y could exist, access to y would not be controlled by the parent at the next immediate higher level; the variables of the output set of one function can be the variables of the input set of another function only if the variables belong to functions on the same level. If f1(x) = y and f2(y) = g, both functions exist at the same level. "
" Other implications (derived theorems) of the axioms are: every object has a unique parent, is under control; and has a unique priority; communication of children is controlled by the parent, and dependent functions exist at the same level; the priority of an object is always higher than its dependents and totally ordered with respect to other objects at its own level. Relative timing between objects (including functions) is therefore preserved; maximum completion or delay time for a process is related to a given interrupt structure. Absolute timing can therefore be established (i.e., it can be determined if there is enough time to do the job); the relationships of each variable are predetermined, instance by instance, thus eliminating conflicts; each system has the property of single reference/single assignment. SOOs can therefore be defined independent of execution order; the nodal family (a parent and its children) does not know about (is independent of) its invokers or users; concurrent patterns can be automatically detected; every system is event driven (every input is an event; every output is an event; every function is event driven); and can be used to define discrete or continuous phenomenon; each object, and changes to it, is traceable; each object can be safely reconfigured; every system can ultimately be defined in terms of three primitive control structures, each of which is derived from the six axioms—a universal semantics, therefore, exists for defining systems. "
" In the early 1990s, Wynn (1990, 1992) first reported that children learn the meanings of cardinal number words one at a time and in order. Wynn showed this using the “Give-N” or “Give-a-number” task, in which she asked children to give her a certain number of items (e.g., “Give me one fish”; “Give me three fish,” etc.). She found that children’s performance moved through a predictable series of levels. At the earliest (“pre-number-knower”) level, children do not distinguish among the different number words. Pre-number knowers might give one object for every number requested, or they might give a handful of objects for every number, but they show no sign of knowing the exact meaning of any number word. At the next level (called the “one-knower” level), children know that “one” means 1. On the Give-N task, one-knowers give exactly one object when asked for “one,” and they give two or more objects when asked for any other number. After this comes the “two-knower” level, where children give one object for “one,” and two objects for “two,” but do not reliably produce larger sets. This is followed by a “three-knower” level and (although Wynn didn’t find it because she never asked children for four objects) a “four-knower” level. After the four-knower level, children seem to learn the meanings of the higher cardinal number words in a different way-inferring their meanings from their place in the counting list rather than learning them individually as they did with the small numbers (Carey, 2009). Children who have done this (i.e., who have figured out how the counting system represents cardinal numbers) are called “Cardinal-principle knowers.” " -- Barbara W. Sarnecka. On the relation between grammatical number and cardinal numbers in development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_category
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobson%27s_functions_of_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempto_Controlled_English
todo: move some content from [14] to here
"In English, 'to be' can have different functions:
It talks about Identity: The cat is my only pet, The cat is Garfield
It talks about belonging to a class, or a group: The cat is an animal
It can talk about properties: The cat is furry
It can be an auxiliary verb: The cat is sleeping, The cat is bitten by the dog
It can talk about existence: There is a cat
It can talk about location: The cat is here" -- http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Primehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_category#Lexical_categories_vs._phrasal_categories :
Lexical categories:
In the above, classes which are usually open according to the table at [15] are listed with '(open)'; all others are listed as 'usually closed' in that table.
The list of the nine parts-of-speech listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_of_speech#Parts_of_speech_in_English correspond to this list, except that some categories on the above list are more general (eg 'determiner' is a generalization of 'article'; 'adposition' is a generalization of preposition), and also the above list breaks conjunctions into coordinate and subordinate, and has an additional category "particle". Definitions for many of the items on the above list may be found there.
The (union of the) lists of Dionysius Thrax and Priscian in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_of_speech#History roughly correspond to the above, except that they have the additional category 'participle' (a part of speech sharing features of the verb and the noun), and they do not have adjectives (which were grouped with nouns) or particles.
The list found inside the picture at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_of_speech#Functional_classification roughly corresponds to the above list, with a phrasal category for each lexical category, except that the phrasal category 'clause' has in addition been added, and pronouns and adverbs have been left out (presumably they are found within noun and verb phrases, respectively), and particles have also been left out, and interjections don't have a phrasal category.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_of_speech#Functional_classification contains a list of common lexical categories defined by function. This list corresponds to the above list, except that coordinate and subordinate conjunctions are combined into one category, and that this list contains or breaks out the new categories auxiliary verbs, clitics, coverbs, measure words or classifiers, preverbs, contractions, cardinal numbers, all of which are listed under 'usually closed classes'.
You may be wondering what some of these classes are. I assume that you probably already know what nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, and prepositions are. Here are the others from the above list:
And here are the others from the other lists (excluding contractions, because i assume you already know what contractions are)
Here are common examples of some of these classes (i give a citation only when the source claims these are the most common):
Other classes/subclasses sometimes mentioned:
Is there a list of things like that? I dont know of one, but i havent really looked. Possibly related/toread:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_%28linguistics%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complement_%28linguistics%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_%28grammar%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_%28grammar%29#Types_of_objects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_%28grammar%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_%28grammar%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic%E2%80%93comment
The word 'ontology' has two related but distinct meanings. One, the older meaning is the philosophical topic concerned with the nature of existence; it concerns questions such as, what sorts of things exist? The second, more recent meaning is the computer science and information science topic concerned with the semantic structure of relationships between concepts; it concerns questions such as, how shall we organize knowledge?
These are related because, for example, a philosophical proposal for a division of things that exist into fundamental types can inspire a similar type structure for the organization of conceptual knowledge.
Here we present material related to both definitions.
"The Categories (Latin: Categoriae) introduces Aristotle's 10-fold classification of that which exists: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, situation, condition, action, and passion."
" The list given by the schoolmen and generally adopted by modern logicians is based on the original fivefold classification given by Aristotle (Topics, a iv. 101 b 17-25): definition (horos), genus (genos), differentia (diaphora), property (idion), accident (sumbebekos). The scholastic classification, obtained from Boëthius's Latin version of Porphyry's Isagoge, modified Aristotle's by substituting species (eidos) for definition. Both classifications are of universals, concepts or general terms, proper names of course being excluded. There is, however, a radical difference between the two systems. The standpoint of the Aristotelian classification is the predication of one universal concerning another. The Porphyrian, by introducing species, deals with the predication of universals concerning individuals (for species is necessarily predicated of the individual), and thus created difficulties from which the Aristotelian is free (see below).
The Aristotelian classification may be briefly explained:
" The definition of anything is the statement of its essence (Arist. τὸ τί ᾖν εἶναι), i.e. that which makes it what it is: e.g. a triangle is a three-sided rectilineal figure.
Genus is that part of the essence which is also predicable of other things different from them in kind. A triangle is a rectilineal figure; i.e. in fixing the genus of a thing, we subsume it under a higher universal, of which it is a species.
Differentia is that part of the essence which distinguishes one species from another. As compared with quadrilaterals, hexagons and so on, all of which are rectilineal figures, a triangle is differentiated as having three sides.
A property is an attribute which is common to all the members of a class, but is not part of its essence (i.e. need not be given in its definition). The fact that the interior angles of all triangles are equal to two right angles is not part of the definition, but is universally true.
An accident is an attribute which may or may not belong to a subject. The color of the human hair is an accident, for it belongs in no way to the essence of humanity. "
This classification, though it is of high value in the clearing up of our conceptions of the essential contrasted with the accidental, the relation of genus, differentia and definition and so forth, is of more significance in connection with abstract sciences, especially mathematics, than for the physical sciences. It is superior on the whole to the Porphyrian scheme, which has grave defects. As has been said, it classifies universals as predicates of individuals and thus involves the difficulties which gave rise to the controversy between realism and nominalism. How are we to distinguish species from genus? Napoleon was a Frenchman, a man, an animal. In the second place how do we distinguish property and accident? Many so-called accidents are predicable necessarily of any particular persons. This difficulty gave rise to the distinction of separable and inseparable accidents, which is one of considerable difficulty.
" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categories_%28Aristotle%29
from fig. 2.1 of An Introduction to Ontologies and Ontology Engineering by Catherine Roussey, Francois Pinet, Myoung Ah Kang, and Oscar Corcho:
that figure in words (the vocab used here is itself of interest):
A Property has a name (which is of type (isa) Term) Concepts may have Properties Concepts may have a logical definition Concepts may have a textual (informal) definition Instances are examples of a Concept; one Concept may be instantiated in multiple Instances A Concept has a label (which is of type (isa) Term) An Instance has an ID (which is of type (isa) Term) A Relation has a name (which is of type (isa) Term) A Semantic Relation is a subtype of a Relation A Semantic Relation has arguments (which are of type (isa) Concept) An Instance Relation is a subtype of a Relation An Instance Relation has arguments (which are of type (isa) Instance) An Instance Relation is an instance of a Semantic Relation A Terminological Relation is a subtype of a Relation A Terminological Relation has arguments (which are of type (isa) Term)
todo transcribe that figure into words
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_future_contingents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_of_opposition
Kant's notion of Disjunctive judgements relates to the logical operation of xor, and his corresponding category of Community relates to union sum types, that is, to types which represent a list of other types, and you know that a value whose type is the union sum type must be an instance of exactly one of those types on the list, but you don't know which one.
In other words, the n-ary xor of the predicates isInstance(x, t_i), where i ranges over the types on the list, and where x is any value whose type is the union sum type of that list, is True.
(in some languages, the equivalence between this and union sum types is only true if the types on the list don't overlap, eg there is no value that isInstance of more than one of those types; but i am talking about union sum types in which the cases are defined with respect to the sum type, for example data declarations in Haskell, in which you define the constructors for a datatype as mutually exclusive cases of that datatype; for example, defining a list as either (a) an empty list, or (b) cons(something, another list); in this situation the cases are mutually exclusive)
I may be totally misinterpreting this.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_language vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_language (this distinction is only about inflectional morphemes; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolating_language , which takes into account derivational morphemes as well as inflectional morphemes)
