From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!purdue!yuma!lamar!arsmith Wed Sep 16 21:22:53 EDT 1992
Article 6870 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: arsmith@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Alan Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: missing verbs
Message-ID: <Sep11.015057.71171@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>
Date: 11 Sep 92 01:50:57 GMT
References: <1992Sep9.162211.11503@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> <1992Sep9.230021.5182@news.media.mit.edu> <BILL.92Sep9232609@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
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In article <BILL.92Sep9232609@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>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.
>
HA! <flash of light>  Why don't we ask the people in alt.sex.bondage?  In fact,
I'll go ask them, hang on a minute... <turns to type on his computer>

>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.
>
That's cause odds are the bikes gonna move before the house does.

Big Al.  I'm not a linguist, though I *do* speak english.  Sorta.


