A year ago Rob Hodgkinson pointed me to the following definition of the first-order difference of a vector. diff =: }. - }:
I wanted to find a way to specify the order-of-difference as a left argument. Henry Rich refined that as the following adverb: fd=: (}. - }:) ^: It's still among my favorite phrases. Tracy On 8/20/08, Sherlock, Ric <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >From www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dictf.htm I read that a conjunction > >with noun or verb produces an adverb. > > The examples given are: > each=: &.> > which I'm pretty sure I understand and > bc=: <" NB. boxcells > which I found enlightening > 0 bc i.3 > +-+-+-+ > |0|1|2| > +-+-+-+ > > I know an adverb alters the meaning of the verb to its left to create a new > verb. I interpret this last example to be showing that adverbs also alter the > noun to its left to create a new verb. This led me to: > 2(&^) 3 NB. Adverb (&^) applied to noun 2 gives the verb "2-to-the-power" > 8 > 2(^&) 3 NB. Adverb (^&) applied to the noun 2 gives the verb "square" > 9 > > However I wasn't able to track down anything in the dictionary that states > that explicitly. I looked on the following pages: > www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/intro03.htm > www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/intro15.htm > www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dict2.htm > www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dictb.htm > www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dictc.htm > www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dictf.htm > > The closest I got was on <www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dict2.htm> were > it states that: > > "An adverb acts on a single noun or verb to its left." > > and then gives an example of an adverb acting on a verb to create a derived > verb. And on <www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dictc.htm> where it states > that: > > "Conjunctions and adverbs apply to noun or verb arguments; a conjunction > may produce as many as four distinct classes of results." > > These tells me that an adverb can apply to a noun as well as a verb, but > don't tell me what the result is. > > Can anyone confirm or correct my interpretation? > Can you point me to a dictionary reference? > > Perhaps this is basic grammar? If so, the only poor excuse I can offer is > having been educated at a time where teaching grammar was deemed not > important! > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
