From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!bu.edu!transfer!applix!chris Wed Sep 16 21:22:42 EDT 1992
Article 6858 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!bu.edu!transfer!applix!chris
>From: chris@applix.com (Chris Howell [ext 238])
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Biological Sex Differences? ("Women only" excusable ?)
Message-ID: <1627@applix.com>
Date: 10 Sep 92 15:10:42 GMT
References: <wentzell.78.715973345@ace.acadiau.ca> <MELBY.92Sep9005959@dove.yk.Fujitsu.CO.JP> <1992Sep9.034138.15488@news.media.mit.edu>
Organization: Applix, Inc., Westboro, MA
Lines: 40

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.
>

"Best" and "worst" as verbs, mean the same! They both mean that the subject
defeats the object. How could this happen?

Maybe the defeated one loses face, looses the right to be a subject. Maybe to
be the subject of active verbs like these one has to have intention.

Most cases I can think of where one intentionally loses a conflict, one
also wants to conceal the intention. Like when playing a game with a
child. Since the intention is concealed, we do not need words to
express it.

Remember the film "Lonliness of a Long Distance Runner"? The
prisoner-runner's act of deliberately losing the race was an extremely
powerful gesture as he made his intention obvious. If "best" and
"worst" meant what they might, one might say the prisoner "worsted" the
other runners in the race but "bested" the prison warden in the greater
contest the film portrays.


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Chris Howell                   Applix, Inc.          (508) 870-0300 x238
chowell@applix.com OR          112 Turnpike Road
...!uunet!applix!chowell       Westboro MA 01581
"Oh, the cheapness of mindless calculation in this modern age!" - Roger
Penrose, in "The Emperor's New Mind", commenting on his word processor.
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