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Even early stabs at x-bar theory indicate that natural languages are highly homoiconic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-bar_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
by jfm3 16y ago
Even early stabs at x-bar theory indicate that natural languages are highly homoiconic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-bar_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-bar_theory
- sedachv 16y agoCan you please explain more?
- jfm3 16y agoHomoiconicity means program and data have identical representation. But after you Lisp for a while the boundary blurs entirely. X-bar theory says that in all natural languages, Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and depending on who you read other types of phrases all have the same form; a single Head (which may be composite) and a Tail with zero or more elements. Never mind that they've just discovered S-expressions. The point is that in the natural language program: multiply the radius squared and pi Both the data-like parts and the program-like parts share the same structure.