Steve: For example, "the flashy red truck..." does "flashy" modify "red" or "truck"? Almost anything can modify a color, as a trip to a paint store will quickly confirm. Hence, a linguist would decide that "flashy" is an adverb modifying the adjective "red". However, reflecting on when you first read this, you probably thought that "flashy" was referring to the truck.
Good example. How do we decide the referent in... “the robbers drove a flashy red truck.” ? Maybe Jim would like to explain how it is possible to decide this without looking at the *real world referent* – the *real world object[s]* referred to – or to put that another way, “the EVIDENCE”? The actual truck – in which the flashiness may or may not have resided in the redness. Maybe Jim would also like to explain how it is possible to decide about ANY real world statement without in the final analysis, looking at the *real world referent* – the evidence? [“Final analysis” – you may decide without so doing yourself, but you will look to the evidence of someone who did look at the relevant objects]. Maybe Jim would like to explain how it is possible to decide about any *scientific* statement – any *technological* statement – any *historical* statement – any cultural or everyday statement whatsoever about the real world, without *looking at the evidence* – looking at the objects referred to? Maybe Jim would like to point to any of these practices where science/technology/history etc produce statements without reliance on evidence? How do we decide whether “the hippocampus is centrally involved in memory” without looking at the hippocampus? How do we decide whether “Jim B has no idea of what he is talking about, whenever he uses “evidence” “ – without considering Jim B’s real world statements? IOW “AI/AGI linguistics” i(and Jim) are more or less totally divorced from the real world – and not surprisingly going nowhere. Language really does refer to the real world, and any agent that cannot compare “this object” with the actual real world object referred to, is not a real language user. Language use IOW is impossible without “real world RESEARCH” , “real world EXPERIMENT”, “real world ACTUATION” on and of the objects and actions referred to. ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
