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Subject: RE: [huml] paper: Semiotics and the Description of Stone tools in Ar haeology
I'm not quite sure what you're after. 1. The writing itself is tortured. I suspect English is the author's second language. 2. An informal term for the dilemma described is "semantic drift". A term or phrase is borrowed from a domain and used in a related but different domain where its meaning begins to diverge from the original. This is a common problem in common language but of deep concern in scientific work where the assumption of semantic equivalence is made to enable logical deductions. 3. It is a description of a common problem in living languages. Yes, the usual answer is by reference to specific dictionaries or ontologies. 4. Maintaining such is a devilishly expensive task in any field that is very active (think keeping track of a single character in a boiling alphabet soup). A good description of these linguistic problems can be found in John Sowa's work. If she is looking for a solution, that is one of the reasons for the work on SUO (Standard Upper Level Ontology) and work on the semantic web. Sowa describes an approach in which any statement is a theory of meaning and theories can be assembled into a lattice work with the empty set as the root. len -----Original Message----- From: James Landrum [mailto:james.landrum@ndsu.nodak.edu] I'd appreciate feedback, particularly from Len and Sylvia, as well as any other comments for others on this short paper. For example, I'd like to know if you think it is a good (or poor) discussion of the issues? http://www.geocities.com/diccio2002/SAA2001e.htm
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