Anna Wiersbicka is a Polish-Australian researcher in language semantics who is proposing that all concepts in all languages can be defined in terms of 61 basic concepts, called “primitives”. In a very interesting article in the NRC Handelsblad of Saturday, September 20, 2003, she elaborates on this theory.

In short, these 61 primitives can be represented by 61 words (or word groups) in all languages. By stringing these 61 words together with a suitable mini-grammar, any concept can be explained. Strangely enough, the definitions themselves read like poems. For example:

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Yesterday was September 15, exactly 3 years after I officially started with my Ph.D. Time is fun when you’re having flies! This means that today I have just under a year left to go, which in turn means that the stress is beginning to pile up.

I apologise in advance if I accidentally bite your head off.

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Good Old Ben just sent me this link. I am lusting after a new PDA (T2 or Zire 71), but can’t justify purchasing one because my trusty Palm IIIx (now three years old) is still performing its PDA-duties with unwavering loyalty. However, if the prices on the new modules drop significantly, the equation changes…

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Yes children, Bob the Angry Flower explains when to use “its” and when to use “it’s”. It’s not that difficult!

Now if only somebody can also educate the millions of idiot losers (most of them on slashdot) abusing the phrase “begging the question” so often. See here for the correct meaning of the phrase.

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My dual 933MHz PIII that was state of the art three years ago has now become quite long in the tooth. Fortunately, Ari has graciously allowed me to use his old workstation (since he’ll probably be spending significantly more time with his new employer). This “hand-me-down” :) has a 2.4GHz P4, 512MB DDR (soon to be upgraded), lotsa disc space, a GeForce4 4600 with 128MB ram of its own and a beautiful 18″ Dell UltraSharp LCD screen. Subjectively, everything just flies!

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On Wednesday, August 27, I will take part in the online demonstration against software patents by replacing my web-site front-page with a protest page against software patents. The aggregator might also disappear for that day for the same reason.

Please consider joining this on-line effort!

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This is an interesting comparison of potential programmer productivity (PPP!) with Python and Java.

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Please people, remove the W32.Sobig.F@mm worm from your infected Windows systems. It’s sending mail all over the place and it’s faking the from address. Click here to read about the worm and how to remove it. For the Dutch readers, this will also help.

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Because my blog page had emptied itself due to a lack of posting (I think that it got severely depressed), I deemed it necessary to post something to remedy this situation. Because I’m profoundly busy with non-blog things, it’s going to have to be a screenshot.

Click on this DSCAS3 logo: to see a screenshot of my super-duper, ultra-useful and quasi-sentient DSCAS3 software. Because I like to irk bigots of any kind, the screenshot is of the Windows version. :)

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Die kind

_Die kind is nie dood nie

die kind lig sy vuiste teen sy moeder

wat Afrika skreeu skreeu die geur van vryheid en heide

in die lokasies van die omsingelde hart

Die kind lig sy vuiste teen sy vader

wat Afrika skreeu skreeu die geur

van geregtigheid en bloed

in die strate van sy gewapende trots

Die kind is nie dood nie

nóg by Langa nóg by Nyanga

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