Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with semantics

Help me learn to typeset equations like it was my job. (Why? Because it is.)

nebulawindphone — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:56:56 -0800

I am looking for a math typesetting style guide. By this I don't mean the kind of stylesheet for journal submissions that says "Be sure to use the blah-blah-blah LaTeX package and the XYZ equation environment, and our army of editorial assistants will tie up the loose ends and knock off the rough edges." (Why not? Because my advisor is involved in starting a new journal, and suddenly my labmates and I are that army of editorial assistants.) I am less interested in the technical details of mathematical typesetting. We've got our fonts chosen already, we're committed to using LaTeX and AMSMath which I speak pretty fluently, and we're distributing online so anything having to do with print is Not An Issue. In particular, I am not looking for another LaTeX user's manual — although if the advice I need happens to be buried in one, I'm okay with that. I'm also not particularly interested in simple questions of usage ("bigger parentheses or square brackets?" "~ or ¬ for negation?"), especially since a lot of those boil down to taste and convenience anyway.

I'm more interested in what you might call the visual semantics of it. (F'rinstance: How do you set a long equation so as to reveal its structure quickly and easily to the reader? How can spacing, line breaks, alignment and so on be used to produce that sort of clarity, and what other tricks are there that I'm not thinking of? What about a sequence of equations? A derivation or proof? How do you set a nonstandard symbol — an operator, function, etc. defined by the author;we get this a lot in my field — so that it's clear what its role in the equation is? This isn't a complete list of questions, but it's questions like that that I want to learn how to answer.) Aesthetic details — good spacing, good line breaks and page breaks, all-around symmetry and tidiness — are also important. The goal is to make these thorny and technical articles as easy and joyful to read as I possibly can.

Bonus points for a guide with good advice on the odd situations that come up in formal semantics and mathematical logic. (For instance, I've been unable to find any advice for laying out expressions in lambda calculus, or ones containing multiple quantifiers, and both of those are frequent sources of difficulty here.) But if that's asking too much, then I'm looking for general best practices that I can apply to the edge cases when they come up.

"I don't see my feelings changing anytime soon" - What does that mean, exactly?

thermonuclear.jive.turkey — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:15:22 -0800

"I don't see my feelings changing anytime soon" - What does that mean, exactly? I have a question on word useage...

What does the phrase, "I don't see my feelings changing anytime soon", actually mean?

1. my feelings won't change, ever - and this is simply a polite way of expressing it?

2. my feelings are as stated, but I'm leaving the door open they might change at some later date?

3. related to #2, if I said this ("I don't see...") would you take it that there's a hint of doubt in my mind, that my feelings indeed aren't necessarily final?

4. something else?

And might this depend on the speaker, and the situation, and not have an absolute context?

(I think it was a character in Alice in Wonderland who said he could make a word mean whatever he wanted it to mean. Is this one of those things?)

Term to describe those people who ruin it for the rest.

fizzix — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:33:46 -0800

vocab-filter: Is there a vocabulary word or term to describe a service or an act of generosity that is ceased by its maintainers because a small, select group broke the rules ?
(Anecdote: I became inspired to ask this question, after hearing that city-maintained recycling bins were removed at a location because people were dumping non-recyclables in and around the bins. I am writing about the issue in my blog and became curious about this).

Additionally, would there a different term if a majority of people were not following the rules, as opposed to just a small, select few ?

I first thought that this would be a tragedy of the commons but I found it to be different because there is not a finite resource (i.e. clean water) that is being exploited.

Words that change meaning because they look like other words

hiteleven — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:55:25 -0800

Looking for linguistic theories that describe why words change in meaning, particularly because they look and/or sound like other words. I am in the process of writing a PhD disseration proposal (in the humanities) in which words that change meaning over time play a large role. I am looking for theories from linguistics that might explain why such changes take place.

It seems that there are a lot of books out there, both technical and popular, that describe how such changes take place (giving lists of popular and fun examples, etc.) I am looking here for the "why", not the "what" or the "how".

To be more specific, I am looking into words that change meaning because they look and/or sound like other words. To give an example from Latin (the language I'm working with), the verb populare originally meant "to plunder", or "to devastate". Yet in medieval Latin charters, it quickly comes to mean "to settle" or "to populate". It's hard to say exactly why this change takes place, though the close resemblance of the word to populus, meaning "people", is quite obvious, and must have played a role.

The word(s) I'm looking into are less obvious in terms of their connection, and the conlusions I would make would be more contentious, so I'm really looking for some good solid theory to back me up, or at least make my proposal sound more technically sound.

English books would of course be the easiest to work with, but if there is some key text in French, Italian, German, or whatever, please let me know.

What is her issue with my issues?

crickets — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:52:32 -0800

I have issues. My new friend takes issue with that. I think of myself as a complicated guy, and there are any number of things I would like to improve about myself, mostly on the emotional side of things. At times I describe myself as being "broken." I also describe myself as "having issues." I think my issues are a bit more problematic than most people's, but they aren't really anything that prevents me from functioning or living a normal life or being a good person. (I am also actively working on them, but that's not why I'm here.)

I have a new friend that I've become very close to (it could end up as a romantic relationship one day, but circumstances dictate that for now it is not), and she thinks that these descriptors are overly negative and counter-productive, and is encouraging me to find new, more positive language to use.

I can see where she's coming from with "broken" -- it's a harsh word, and I agree that there are more constructive ways to think of myself.

But "having issues"? I've tried to understand where she's coming from, but I just don't see the negativity in it. Can anyone help me understand where she's coming from here?

Follow-up: If you feel "having issues" is too negative, how could I be thinking about myself (the goal being positive and constructive self-criticism)?

(And before you say it, yes, I will be asking my therapist these questions as well. :)

don't condescend...

es_de_bah — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:56:23 -0800

How does one properly use the term condescend (or condescending)? Is there a correct way? Is there a more popular way? It seems the word expresses two contradictory meanings. In one sense, condescend means to address one's inferiors in a way that debases oneself, thus leveling the playing field. In another, condescend means to sarcastically overplay the act of debasing oneself, thus underscoring the difference between oneself and another. Is it synonymous with patronize? Is it similar to patronize but it implies a greater level of facetiousness? Is there a cut and dry way to use this word? It seems rather obscure to begin with, so a routinely sarcastic use is problematic. and for god's sake, how is it used in Barton Fink?!?!?!

What's that Word

Student of Man — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:44:41 -0800

What is the word or Phrase for a situation where competing persons become emroiled in a "sub game "? A different level of competition, so to say. Relates to game theory somehow. It may or may not include the word "pareto". Thanks.

Translating Experience

Jeff Howard — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:45:33 -0800

I'm looking for translations of a particular sense of the English word "experience." The early 20th century philosopher John Dewey differentiated between the daily, incohate stream of experience that we all encounter and something more specific called "an experience." Something memorable and well defined with a clear beginning, middle and end. For example, you're all experiencing this question right now, but you wouldn't think of it as "an experience" in the way you would think of going to a concert as an experience.

Do other languages have better ways of distinguishing these two concepts? There's got to be something in German...

WYSIWYM for Notes

tmcw — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:53:47 -0800

I'm interested in designing a notetaking markup system for writing & the web. Before I put much more effort into it, does it exist? I have an idea for something that goes in a different direction than most markup - instead of style, it essentially denotes substance. Something like

A Season in Purgatory <>wonderfully accessible worlds of LaTeX and formal semantics.

Any ideas? Remarks? Suggestions? Does this already exist, and I'm just not noticing it?

Thanks

Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?

miss lynnster — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:47:55 -0800

If someone is French Algerian, can they call themselves "Latin?" Yes, I know the Romans were everywhere... but I always think that nowadays "Latin" refers more to Mexican, Spanish, Italian or Latin American cultures. I could see how people from France might, but I didn't think people on the African continent ever called themselves Latin too. However, I've been told I'm totally wrong. (For that matter, wouldn't the Turks be Latin? There's all sorts of Roman history there...)

Please educate me. Thank you.

What does 'Terror' mean?

beniamino — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 12:33:32 -0800

Is the definition of 'terror' as 'Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes' a recent development, or a regional variation? The American Heritage Dictionary includes this as one of its definitions. Merriam-Webster has a similar definition. Coming from the UK, I have never known the word could be used this way. I would use 'terrorism' to mean this. To me, the main definition of 'terror' is an emotion or mental state.

The Oxford English Dictionary seems to agree with me (can't link to it, sorry). It has three definitions: 'The state of being terrified or greatly frightened...', 'The action or quality of causing dread', 'A person (occas., a thing) fancied to excite terror'.

My question: Has this definition of 'terror' as 'an act of violence' been used by US (or other) English speakers for a long time, or is it a new meaning that has resulted from recent political usage?

[Obviously, it affects how you interpret the term 'War on Terror'. I'm interested because of the debate in this thread. However, I'd really like to avoid any political debate here.]

What is the History of English Capitalization?

freebird — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 09:41:00 -0800

What is the History of English Language Capitalization? I have been Interested for some time in the Capitalization used in Older English Texts - I think of the style as fading into the "Modern" System sometime in the 1800s, but have No Idea if that is Accurate. Many "Improper" Nouns and even some Verbs are Capitalized, but it often Appears as though there is little System to it all but Individual Aesthetic. Is that the case? If not, what is the Underlying Method? When and Why did it change?

As a fairly representative Example, this Text (via Mefi).

Crossing out words in hypertext

semmi — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 19:26:00 -0800

How do you cross out words in Hypertext?

How do I make my weblog code semantically correct?

kchristidis — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 05:00:20 -0800

Semantically correct code in a weblog: what happens when your focus is on posts' titles (rather than on posts' timestamps) with regards to headers (h1, h2) classes? [more inside] (My first attempt at going with semantically correct code, I don't know if what I'm thinking makes perfect sense.)

Here's my question: a post's timestamp is higher in the hierarchy than a post's title, because the flow goes like: "year,month,day->posts in that day" (am I right on that one?).

So, you would assign h1 to the date, and h2 to the title.

What happens if you want the posts' titles to be of greater visibility than their respective dates (imagine a post title in big bold letters, and the date underneath in small letters)?

Do you still assign h1 to the date, and h2 to the post, and just set h2's font size to be bigger than h1's, or you go the other way (assign h1 to the post title, and h2 to the date)?

Does this question make sense? Am I worrying for nothing?

what the hell does the phrase "the human spirit" actually mean?

Stynxno — Wed, 10 Dec 2003 12:40:44 -0800

what the hell does the phrase "the human spirit" actually mean? is it just a term created by publishers and marketing departments to sell material or does it imply something more?