[tt] the physics arXiv blog

[Eugen Leitl]

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From: the physics arXiv blog <howdy at arxivblog.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 14:42:39 -0500 (CDT)
To: eugen at leitl.org
Subject: the physics arXiv blog
Reply-To: the physics arXiv blog <howdy at arxivblog.com>


[1]the physics arXiv blog

   [2]The curious kernels of dictionaries

   Posted: 07 Jul 2008 12:17 AM CDT

   [3]Grounded kernel 

   If you don't know the meanng of a word, you look it up in the
   dictionary. But what if you don't know the meaning of any of the words
   in the definition? Or the meaning of any of the words in the
   definitions of these defining words? And so on ad infinitum.

   This is known as the "symbol grounding problem" and is related to the
   nature of meaning in language.  The way out of this problem is to
   assume that we somehow automatically "know" the meaning of a small
   kernel of words from which all others can be defined.

   The thinking is that some words are so closely linked to the object to
   which they refer that we know their meaning without a definition.
   Certain individuals, events and  actions apparently fall into this
   category. These words are called "grounded".

   How this controversial idea might work, we'll leave for another
   day.The question we're pondering today, thanks to Alexandre Blondin
   Masse at the University of Quebec in Canada is: how small a kernel of
   grounded words do we need to access the entire dictionary.

   We don't have an answer for you but Blondin Masse and pals have a
   method based on the concept of reachable set: "a larger vocabulary
   whose meanings can be learned from a smaller vocabulary through
   definition alone, as long as the meanings of the smaller vocabulary
   are
   themselves already grounded".

   The team have even  developed algorithms to compute a reachable set
   for any given dictionary and from that the size of the grounded
   kernel.

   It has to be said that modern dictionaries already work like this;
   they are based on a defining vocabulary of about 2000 words from which
   all others are defined, although this system does not appear to be
   rigorously enforced, says Blondin Masse and co.

   Nobody knows whether 2000 words is close to the theoretical limit for
   a grounding kernel. But we'll expect Blondin Masses and pals to tell
   us soon.

   Ref: [4]arxiv.org/abs/0806.3710: How Is Meaning Grounded in Dictionary
   Definitions?

   [5][arXivblog?i=436mne] 
   [6][arXivblog?i=gpGwtJ] [7][arXivblog?i=PqbAqJ]
   [8][arXivblog?i=SwdaCj] [9][arXivblog?i=NrWBHJ]
   [10][arXivblog?i=DrWMdj] [11][arXivblog?i=hy6EPJ]
   [12][arXivblog?i=V0CEoj] [13][arXivblog?i=736Q5J] 
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References

   1. http://arxivblog.com/
   2. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/arXivblog/~3/328587345/
   3. http://arxivblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/grounded-kernel.jpg
   4. http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.3710
   5. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/arXivblog?a=436mne
   6. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=gpGwtJ
   7. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=PqbAqJ
   8. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=SwdaCj
   9. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=NrWBHJ
  10. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=DrWMdj
  11. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=hy6EPJ
  12. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=V0CEoj
  13. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=736Q5J
  14. http://arxivblog.com/
  15. http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailunsub?id=8632699&key=kesJ612ZsV
  16. http://feeds.feedburner.com/arXivblog
  17. http://feeds.feedburner.com/arXivblog

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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