RE: Ambiguity and disunification

From: Jony Rosenne (rosennej@qsm.co.il)
Date: Wed Mar 02 2005 - 22:41:29 CST

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    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org
    > [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On Behalf Of Gregg Reynolds
    > Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 4:59 AM
    > To: Dean Snyder
    > Cc: Unicode List
    > Subject: Re: Ambiguity and disunification
    >
    >
    > Dean Snyder wrote:
    > ...
    > >
    > > 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.
    > >
    >
    > You lost me there. If I have <hyphen/minus> and <hyphen>,
    > for example,
    > there's nothing ambiguous about the fact that the former is ambiguous
    > (bi-semous?) and the latter not. How does adding <hyphen> to the
    > repertoire change the meaning of <hyphen/minus>? Have I
    > misunderstood
    > something?

    With Hyphen-Minus Unicode did right - there are separate hyphen and minus
    codes.

    I cannot understand why in the Hebrew cases the UTC thought it isn't
    necessary. The only reason I saw was that the glyph of both Qamats Gadol and
    the ambiguous Qamats are the same, and this reason is irrelevant.

    >
    > > 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.
    >
    > Lost me again. Be patient. Are you saying that the presence of e.g.
    > <hyphen> in a string of text somehow affects the meaning of
    > <hyphen/minus>? Feel free to explain offline if you think
    > others will
    > be annoyed by this. ;)

    Not in this case. But we are told that the presence of Qamats Qatan in the
    text means that any Qamats in it is a Qamats Gadol.

    Jony

    >
    > thanks,
    >
    > gregg
    >
    >
    >



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