Thanks Donna.
Now could you please use what you've just told me to fully parse the
following expression?
p ; q ; 0 ; ([: ". (39 112 32 113 39 61 58{a.) , ":) 98 99
Ian
On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 10:24 PM, Donna Y <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Ian
>
> In English a pronoun can function by itself as a noun that refers to either
> participants in a discourse ( I, you...) or to someone or something mentioned
> previously that should be clear from the context (he, she, it ...)
>
> On the other hand a Proverb is a short pithy saying - and this is a
> proverbial mistake of thinking that English word formation should follow a
> consistent logic and generate similar meaning by following similar word
> construction.
>
> An example of a proverb: Forewarned is forearmed.
>
> An adverb modifies a verb, adjective or other adverb.
>
> An adjective names an attribute related to a noun
>
> Operators can transform functions into other functions. This is like an
> Adverb not a Proverb.
>
> Donna
> [email protected]
>
>
> On 2010-10-25, at 12:19 AM, Roger Hui wrote:
>
>> Well in the natural language the pronoun "he"
>> sometimes can refer to Ian, and in other times
>> refer to Ken, and in yet other times to Roger,
>> right?
>>
>> The analogy English grammar terms and
>> J grammar terms is not watertight. You carry
>> it out only as far as it's helpful. The main areas
>> where the analogy is _very_ helpful is adverb
>> and verb. In contrast, try explaining "operator"
>> to a beginner, and (speaking of angel-balancing)
>> try explaining the difference between an operator
>> and a function.
>>
>> The first reference I can find of Ken's use of noun/verb
>> in APL is in Chapter 1 of "Algebra: An Algorithmic
>> Treatment", 1972
>> http://keiapl.org/anec/#algebra
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Ian Clark <[email protected]>
>> Date: Sunday, October 24, 2010 10:40
>> Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] Pronoun and proverb?
>> To: General forum <[email protected]>
>>
>>> Yes, I saw all that.
>>>
>>> But, to my mind, there's something Humpty-Dumpty about it all...
>>>
>>> If I input:
>>>
>>> foo=: +/
>>> fie=: foo&99"_
>>> fie f.
>>> foo=: i. 9
>>> fie f.
>>>
>>> ...is foo now a pronoun, whereas it was hitherto a proverb? Or
>>> is it
>>> 'foo' that's the pronoun? After all, English grammar is all to
>>> do with
>>> words, not the things they (might conceivably) designate.
>>>
>>> Could we say that foo was always a pronoun and never was a proverb
>>> (although there was indeed a synonymous proverb... one that was erased
>>> to avoid a name clash)?
>>>
>>> I can think of cases where this sort of angel-balancing matters.
>>> ...In the above series of statements, one could argue.
>>>
>>> I've only just today met the J term: "pronoun". Hitherto I've been
>>> blithely calling foo (as in foo=: i.9) a "noun". Whereas in APL I
>>> would never have confused a variable, the name of the variable, and
>>> its (current) value.
>>>
>>> And in Dyalog APL (I vaguely recall) it's possible to create un-named
>>> objects having nameclass 9 --and make them do things.
>>>
>>> SNOBOL, I recall, made a meal of this issue. A dog's-dinner, indeed.
>>>
>>> Ian
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 5:59 PM, Dan Bron <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> It means what you think: Something that stands for (pro-) a
>>> verb. The only J entities capable of "standing for" (as opposed
>>> to just "being") in J are names. Hence, a proverb is a name
>>> whose referent is a verb / a name which has been assigned to a
>>> verb / a name with nameclass verb (3)*.
>>>>
>>>> This definition is difficult to find in the DoJ, but it's
>>> there [1]:
>>>>
>>>> "The word =: behaves like the copulas “is” and “are” in
>>> English, and is read as such, as in “area is 3 times 4” for
>>> area=: 3*4 . The name area thus assigned is a pronoun and, as in
>>> English, it plays the role of a noun. Similar remarks apply to
>>> names assigned to verbs, adverbs, and conjunctions."
>>>>
>>>> -Dan
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [1] DoJ §II : http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dict2.htm
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> * We need a better word for user assignable names like "area"
>>> to distinguish them from system-defined names like "a." or "*" .
>>> Ideas anyone?
>>>> Please excuse typos; composed on a handheld device.
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Ian Clark <[email protected]>
>>>> Sender: [email protected]
>>>> Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 17:19:58
>>>> To: General forum<[email protected]>
>>>> Reply-To: General forum <[email protected]>
>>>> Subject: [Jgeneral] Pronoun and proverb?
>>>>
>>>> Could someone please define the J term "proverb" for me?
>>>> I've scanned:
>>>> >> << Ndx Usr Pri JfC LJ Phr Dic Rel Voc !:
>>> wd Help
>>>> but I'm still not sure.
>>>>
>>>> I can guess, but I want to know.
>>>>
>>>> Ian
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
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