From: Dean Snyder (dean.snyder@jhu.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 02 2005 - 17:17:47 CST
Kenneth Whistler wrote at 12:29 PM on Wednesday, March 2, 2005:
>And no, Dean, this is not an invitation to come re-argue the
>case that any disambiguating disunification should (or must)
>encode *both* of the disambiguated usages. It matters not
>whether a disunification proceeds as:
>
>X (:: A or B) ==> Y (:: A)
>
>or as:
>
>X (:: A or B) ==> Y (:: A)
> ==> Z (:: B)
>
>In *either* case, you *still* are left with an X encoded, ambiguous
>between meaning "A" or "B". And data that makes use of that X,
>whether generated before *or* after the historical point that
>the disambiguating disunification decision was taken, may still
>be ambiguous in exactly the same way it was before such additions.
Wrong - if you encode only one of the disambiguated usages you have
actually INCREASED the ambiguity of the original character; it now has
not only its original ambiguous significance but ALSO a new context-bound
unambiguous significance opposite the newly encoded character's
significance. In addition, there is no way to represent all three usages
(one ambiguous, two unambiguous) in the same plain text passage.
So you end up precisely with Jony's scenario - if you cut and exchange a
segment of some of this newly encoded and conformant text that happens to
have only examples of the original character in it, you now have no
context with which to decide how this character is to be interpreted
downstream; because the SOLE disambiguation trigger in plain text is the
PRESENCE of at least one of the newly encoded disambiguated characters.
But if, as I have suggested, you encode BOTH unambiguous characters, you
solve all associated problems very simply without introducing any new
problems.
Respectfully,
Dean A. Snyder
Assistant Research Scholar
Manager, Digital Hammurabi Project
Computer Science Department
Whiting School of Engineering
218C New Engineering Building
3400 North Charles Street
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218
office: 410 516-6850
cell: 717 817-4897
www.jhu.edu/digitalhammurabi/
http://users.adelphia.net/~deansnyder/
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