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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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