From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!noao!amethyst!organpipe.uug.arizona.edu!organpipe.uug.arizona.edu!bill Wed Sep 16 21:22:38 EDT 1992
Article 6853 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: missing verbs
Message-ID: <BILL.92Sep9232609@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
Date: 10 Sep 92 06:26:09 GMT
References: <1992Sep9.034138.15488@news.media.mit.edu> <dgsnzqd@lynx.unm.edu>
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In-Reply-To: minsky@media.mit.edu's message of 9 Sep 92 23: 00:21 GMT

minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

   > The problem was to replace phrases like "A defeated B" by a
   > homologous phrase with the same meaning, like "B <verbed> A",
   > where A and B are of equivalent status.  Really, half of the
   > verbs seem to be missing, in this sense.  

Yeah, but I'm not convinced that there's anything sinister going on.
It seems to me that some sort of agent-patient stuff might explain
what's going on -- in English, agents (entities that cause the state
of affairs to come about) tend to get active verbs, and patients tend
to get passive verbs.  If "A defeated B", presumably this state of
affairs was not desired by B, so B was not the agent, so B should not
be placed in subject position with an active verb.

Anyway, English (and other languages) are full of curious asymmetries.
For example, it's okay to say "The bicycle is next to the house", but
it's not okay to say "The house is next to the bicycle", though
logically they ought to mean the same thing.

	-- Bill


