Vreleksá

eldin raigmore

Reflected Communist Bachelors With Spin One-Half Are All Wet.
-- Douglas Hofsteader, "I Am A Strange Loop"
_________________
"We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission

Kiri · Joined: 13 Jun 2009 Posts: 471 Location: Latvia/Italy

I don't understand this last one. Sad

eldin raigmore · Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:43 pm Post subject:

Like "Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously", it's grammatical without making sense.
Or were you asking about "With Spin One-Half"?
Subatomic particles have a quantum number called "spin". It's generally (maybe quarks are an exception) either a whole number or half of an odd whole number.
If it's a whole number the particle is a boson, and obeys "Bose-Einstein statistics", whatever those are. It's possible for a whole bunch of identical bosons to occupy the same space at the same time.
OTOH if the spin is one-half or a whole number plus one-half, the particle is a fermion, and obeys "Fermi-Dirac statistics", whatever those are. The Pauli Exclusion Principle applies to fermions; no two fermions with exactly the same quantum number can ever occupy the same space at the same time. This is why when you sit down you don't just merge with your chair; and it's why when you accidentally walk into a closed glass door that's a bit too clean, it hurts.

Hofsteader was talking, in that section of his chapter, about the difference between concepts that are "sharp", such as "reflected", "with spin one-half", "all", versus concepts that are "fuzzy", such as "Communist", "bachelor", "wet". The title clause of that section doesn't make sense; "spin one-half" applies to subatomic particles, not to bachelors; and "wet" doesn't apply at the molecular level or smaller. Just as nothing can be both colorless and green; and ideas can't be green; and ideas can't sleep; and nothing can sleep furiously.

I figured it would be a good vocabulary-builder. Do you have words in your (nat,con)lang(s) for
All
Are
One
Wet
Half
Spin
With
Bachelors
Reflected
Communist
?

For that matter, how about
A
I
Am
Loop
Strange
?

(In case it was the title "I Am a Strange Loop" you didn't understand, reading the first chapter or so of Hofsteader's book is the best way to find out exactly what that means.)
_________________
"We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission

Kiri · Joined: 13 Jun 2009 Posts: 471 Location: Latvia/Italy

Thanks for the explanation. Now I don't get it on a whole new level Very Happy

eldin raigmore

The mark of a good citizen is that he doesn't believe anything if he can help it.
-- W.B. Yapp

______________________________________________________

And, @kiri:

eldin raigmore · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:12 pm Post subject:

I have become more optimistic and now believe that things could get worse.
www.innocentenglish.com
_________________
"We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission

eldin raigmore · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:41 pm Post subject:

The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend.
-- Margaret Thatcher
_________________
"We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission

eldin raigmore · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 8:59 pm Post subject:

Let tyrants shake their iron rod
And slav'ry clank her galling chains!
We fear them not: our trust is in God.
New England's God forever reigns!
-- Chester, by William Billings, about 1777

(Make it "New (something else)", or even just "(something else)", instead of "New England", if that fits your conculture better.)
_________________
"We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission

Kiri · Joined: 13 Jun 2009 Posts: 471 Location: Latvia/Italy

Latvian
Lai bargie kungi dzelžu rīkstes vēzē,
Lai vergutuŗu rūgtās važas žvadz!
Mēs nebīstamies - Dievam uzticamies,
Jo mūsu Dievs - Viņš valda mūžīgi!

IMP severe.PL.DEF lord.PL iron.PL.GEN rod.PL.ACC swing.3.IMP
IMP slave.PL.GEN-owner.PL.GEN bitter.PL.DEF chains.PL.NOM clank.3.IMP
1PL N-fear.1PL.IND.PRS.REFL - God.S.DAT PREF-believe.1PL.IND.PRS.REFL
because 1PL.GEN God.NOM - 3S.NOM reign.3S.IND.PRS eternal.ADV

Phew! Glossing Latvian verbs is a pain, if you want to show everything Very Happy

Plus, I never know, how to treat the form that counts as a 3rd person imperative.

eldin raigmore · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:19 pm Post subject:

Great! Thanks, Kiri!

Kiri · Joined: 13 Jun 2009 Posts: 471 Location: Latvia/Italy

eldin raigmore · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 10:53 pm Post subject:

eldin raigmore · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 10:57 pm Post subject: