Article View: sci.cognitive
Article #312Re: Theories of meaning not relying solely on sym
From: Pat Healey
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:25
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:25
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1563 bytes
>In article <1992Nov17.092016.28202@news.unige.ch> >swann@divsun.unige.ch (SWANN Philip) writes: > Finally, while genuine synonymes *might* exist as >transient phenomena in human language, surely one would quickly >be driven out by the other for simple reasons of efficiency (would >you want to keep two identical copies of the same procedure in >a program?). Interestingly, Jim Hurford has suggested (via a game-theoretic model) that this tactic of `driving out' synonymy is an evolutionarily stable strategy that may have become genetically fixed during Hominid evolution. One pragmatic aspect of natural language where synonymy is apparently promiscuous (sic) is taboo words. How many words can you think of which all `mean' genitalia ?? :-) Pat. -- Pat Healey | University of Edinburgh Phone: +44 (0)31 650 4436 | Centre for Cognitive Science ARPA: ph%cogsci.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | 2 Buccleuch Place JANET: ph@uk.ac.ed.cogsci | Edinburgh EH8 9LW, Scotland
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!edcogsci!ph From: ph@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Pat Healey) Newsgroups: sci.cognitive,sci.philosophy.tech,sci.lang Subject: Re: Theories of meaning not relying solely on sym Message-ID: <11612@scott.ed.ac.uk> Date: 19 Nov 92 13:25:08 GMT References: <1992Nov16.000040.19912@midway.uchicago.edu> <1992Nov16.120727.17500@husc3.harvard.edu> <1992Nov17.092016.28202@news.unige.ch> <1992Nov17.221542.17555@husc3.harvard.edu> Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK Lines: 25