Thread:User talk:Armondikov/Language sucks/reply (8)

Sometimes concision is as much a virtue as precision. I like to think of words in terms of fuzzy sets. - They have to be. Not only language, frankly, but all real mental processing. When I say the word "pyramid" even out of the blue, your mind instantly offers up images not only of the Egyptian pyramids themselves, but Pharaohs, and sphinxs, and deserts - so that when I speak, and say "dessert" instead of "desert" your mind adjusts without even having to correct what I say.

And, I somehow know that the most likely use of "pyramid" for most English speakers is the Egyptian ones, so if i want you to think of the ones in Mexico, or the mathematical ones, I will without thought, modify my "pyramid" BEFORE i even get into the context. (unless of course I'm in a room of mathematicians or something).

I've heard the term "chunking" used to explain how this works. But you couldn't have a sentence if you had to approach each word in some kind of linguistic isolation. We understand without too much difficulty, people who have accents, people who use words incorrectly, people who say "oh, shit, you know those big things in egypt". We'd have no way to do that without "fuzzy sets"