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slice to Science Memes@mander.xyzEnglish · 6 months ago

I thought it was an easy question ...

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I thought it was an easy question ...

slice to Science Memes@mander.xyzEnglish · 6 months ago
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  • superkret
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    6 months ago

    If you want a clear definition, ask a mathematician:

    A word is any written product of group elements and their inverses.

    Or a computer scientist:

    A word is a fixed-sized datum handled as a unit by the instruction set or the hardware of the processor.

    • folekaule@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Meanwhile, in Unicode land…

    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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      6 months ago

      Maybe ironically, neither one would be appropriate as a linguistic definition.

    • affiliate@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      i wonder what the inverse of the letters in the english alphabet are. since it has a non-prime number of letters (26 to be exact), we know that some letters won’t have inverses. i wonder which letters don’t have inverses. i guess it would be pretty easy to find out if you use the standard alphabet ordering and then port the alphabet over to ℤ/26ℤ, but that’s not a particularly satisfying answer.

    • Malgas@beehaw.org
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      6 months ago

      Or, in either field (formal language theory bridges both) it can mean any string of symbols, letters, or tokens.

  • four@lemmy.zip
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    6 months ago

    “word” is a four letter word

    • lugal@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Please, it’s w*rd, we want to keep this f*mily friendly

      • DreamButt@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        jst blck ll vwls t b* sf

        • lugal@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          Watch your l*nguage, my dear

    • dessimbelackis@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I think you’ll find that in actual fact “bird” is the word

      • dustycups@aussie.zone
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        6 months ago

        That’s what I heard.

        • 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          deleted by creator

      • angrystego@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Birds are not real, though, are they?

      • Entropywins@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        And it begins…probably be 2 days until I get the song out of my head

        • orb360@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          My body is ready!

      • pseudo@jlai.lu
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        6 months ago

        The definition still applies.

    • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
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      6 months ago

      Word!

    • Reuben@lemmy.nz
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      6 months ago

      Recursive acronyms definitions

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      that’s a bit wordy

  • archonet@lemy.lol
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    6 months ago

    if you accept the definition that a word is some letters, surrounded by a gap…

    • sliceOP
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      6 months ago

      From which Tom Scott video is this ?

      • archonet@lemy.lol
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        6 months ago

        this one

        • sliceOP
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          6 months ago

          Thanks

  • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    xnopyt

  • lugal@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Still even people new to writing have a good intuition about that but formalizing this intuition is a different story

  • deaf_fish@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    And I love them for it. Seriously comfortable society is built on and by nerds.

    • sliceOP
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      6 months ago

      Yeah I love it too. It was quite an interesting deep dive into that topic.

  • wandermind@sopuli.xyz
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    6 months ago

    As a linguist, I’d just shrug.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 months ago

      “everyone knows what a word is, that is the definion”

      • shneancy@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        the cries of alien archaeologists from the far future echo in the distance

  • Chemical Wonka@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 months ago

    Saussure feelings

  • Hupf
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    6 months ago

    What is Truth and what is God?

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