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Article 6842 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Biological Sex Differences? ("Women only" excusable ?)
Message-ID: <1992Sep9.181132.13175@blaze.cs.jhu.edu>
Date: 9 Sep 92 18:11:32 GMT
References: <wentzell.78.715973345@ace.acadiau.ca> <MELBY.92Sep9005959@dove.yk.Fujitsu.CO.JP> <1992Sep9.034138.15488@news.media.mit.edu>
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In article <1992Sep9.034138.15488@news.media.mit.edu> minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:
>
>That reminds me of once noticing that the English lexicon of verbs is
>asymmetrical with respect to winning contests of bloody force.  You
>can say in only three words that "Boston clobbered Philadelphia" or
>"Martina defeated Chris".  But you cannot say "Chris (lost to)
>Martina" in three words with Chris occupying the subject-case-slot.
>This seems to show that there is a sinister psychological bias
>concealed in the very lexicon (not grammar) of the language!  Winning
>a contest is an "action" (that is, has an actual verb) on the part of
>the subject of the sentence, whereas losing a contest cannot be
>expressed as an action.  As though to win is to one's credit, whereas
>when you lose, it is the act of someone else and not your own.

We have the single word "lightbulb", but a fluorescent light has to be
referred to with two words: "fluorescent light".  I think this obviously
means that there is a clear bias against using fluorescent lights in the
very language, since we must use two words to describe them.  Not.

I'm not a linguist, and don't know what the proper term to use is, but I would
claim that "lost to" is mostly treated in the human mind as a single unit,
just like "defeat", even though when written on paper it happens to have a
space in the middle.
--
"the bogosity in a field equals the bogosity imported from related areas, plus
the bogosity generated internally, minus the bogosity expelled or otherwise
disposed of."  -- K. Eric Drexler

Ken Arromdee (UUCP: ....!jhunix!arromdee; BITNET: arromdee@jhuvm;
     INTERNET: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu)


