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Nymology
FAQ
- Nymology FAQ
What's the point?
The goal is to find deeper meaning, within language and between ourselves. By acquiring commonsense knowledge from people across disciplines, regions and cultures, we can approach a singularity of meaning and understanding.
How does it work?
Our approach involves collection and analysis of idea sets – a set of dimensions used to frame a concept. The resulting “thesaurus” can be used to populate knowledgebase systems for natural language processing. Developers note: Nymology is open source, and a REST API is provided.
What is nymology?
Think of nymology as the pursuit of word-sensibility, related to phenomenology, semiotics, Natural Language Processing (NLP), LogoVisual Thinking (LVT), construction grammar and Mad Libs.
What is numeronomy?
Think of numeronomy as the pursuit of set-sensibility, an interdisciplinary cross-cultural idea set theory, related to computational lexicology and Bennettian Systematics.
Polynym
Polynyms are idea sets, or multi-term systems, in which each dimension functions as a part, step or type of the main topic:
Freud's three parts of the psyche:
{P3:psyche|part|Freud}
= {id, ego, superego}
Five Stages of Grief:
{P5:grief|step}
= {denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance}
Seven Deadly Sins:
{P7:deadly sin|type}
= {wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony}
A polynym's mode is its part/step/type role.
A polynym's depth is its dimension count.
Set-nyms
The union of two polynyms (their combined dimensions) is termed a unionym:
{P2:yinyang} ⋃ {P3:psyche|Freud}
= {ego, id, superego, yin, yang}
The intersection of two polynyms (their shared dimensions) is termed a sectionym:
{P4:self|Jung} ⋂ {P7:energy|chakras}
= {feeling, thinking}
Supernym/subnym represent polynym superset/subset relationships:
subnym ⊆ supernym:
{feeling, thinking} ⊆ {P4:self|Jung}
supernym ⊇ subnym:
{P12:star sign} ⊇ {P4:fixed star sign}
Polymap
The dimensional relationships between two polynyms is termed a polymap. Relationship types are adopted from ConceptNet:
RelatedTo
FormOf
IsA
PartOf
HasA
UsedFor
CapableOf
AtLocation
Causes
HasSubevent
HasFirstSubevent
HasLastSubevent
HasPrerequisite
HasProperty
MotivatedByGoal
ObstructedBy
HasSubevent
CreatedBy
Synonym
Antonym
DistinctFrom
DerivedFrom
SymbolOf
DefinedAs
MannerOf
LocatedNear
HasContext
SimilarTo
EtymologicallyRelatedTo
EtymologicallyDerivedFrom
CausesDesire
MadeOf
ReceivesAction
ExternalURL
Polyset
A polyset is a polynym set:
[{P2:yinyang}, {P2:psyche}, {P4:self|Jung}]
Vectornym
A vectornym is a polynym array:
{P2:yinyang} → {P2:psyche} → {P4:self|Jung}
For vectornyms and polysets:
- length is the polynym count
- width is the total dimension count
Inside a Polynym
Polynyms have implied internal relationships, depending on mode:
| Polynym Mode | Implied Relationships |
|---|---|
| part | Dimension → PartOf → Topic |
| step | Dimension → UsedFor → Topic Dimension → CapableOf → Topic Dimension1 → Causes → Dimension2 |
| type | Dimension → IsA → Topic Dimension → MannerOf → Topic |
Quadranym
A quadranym is a four-part conceptual construct using a dual-axis mode-state model. Quadrants EROS relate Expansion-Reduction modes and Objective-Subjective states:
| E = expand | O = object | |
| N = Topic Name | ||
| S = subject | R = reduce |
Related four-part constructions include the Semiotic Square, the Hypostatic model and Bennett's Tetrads. For more on quadranym theory see BuildIntuit.
Part-of-Speech (POS) by quadranym type:
| Q type | N = Topic | E / R Modes | O / S States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freeform | any | any | any |
| Conjugal | any | VB | NN |
Qode Script
Qode describes a templating script for quadranym dimensions and POS-tags:
q[number][n, e, r, o, s]_[ADJ, NN, NNS, VB, VBD, VBG, VBN]
For example, the following calls a 3rd quadranym's expansion term in past tense:
You q3e_VBD the door.
Qode scripts accept a subset of WordNet tags:
| Adjectives | Nouns | Verbs |
|---|---|---|
| ADJ : fun | NN : item | VB : eat |
| NNS : items | VBD : ate | |
| VBG : eating | ||
| VBN : eaten |
Templates
Nymology uses phrasal templates to explore meaning structures:
- A phrase is an enqoded template requiring just one quadranym.
- A story is a list of phrase-quadranym pairs.
- A fable is an enqoded template requiring multiple quadranyms.
- A tale is a fable with its required number of quadranyms.
NEROS-string
Each letter in a NEROS-string references a quadranym's name or dimension, summarizing the order of substitutions in a template:
We got a q1o_NN by q1r_VBN the q1n_NN.
NEROS-string = ORN
- Nymology FAQ
