Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> I am not a fan of Chomsky, but must say that this mathematical > "icing" is indeed very seminal and elegant. His work (along with > others', for sure) influenced the design of modern (say since > the 70's) computer languages. I rather enjoyed his formal language > theory (grammar) and its relationship to complexity theory (Turing > machines), when I studied that stuff. Yes, it is very fascinating in a computational context, but in a natural language context it hasn't been shown to be very useful. Turing machines are finite state machines ... and natural language isn't. It's just mathematical icing :) Best, Daniel > - Phong > > Daniel Ridings wrote: > > > > I don't know if he called it so. Without Ferdinand de Saussure with his > > "langue" and "parole" Chomsky wouldn't have gotten very far (he calls it > > "competence" (langue) and "performance" (parole). > > > > The only thing Chomsky added to Saussure was a mathematical icing. > > > > Daniel > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html