Into the Immortal Cultivation - Chapter 2058

[Chapter 71 Formal Linguistics [Three Updates]]

In the end, Taipu Fengze called Zi Xuyi.

“Yo, brother Zixu.” Wang Qi nodded: “I met again. Now, the Yu clan is best at writing and learning, is it you?

” It’s just for writing poems and essays.” Zi Xuyi smiled modestly: “It’s all trivial trails.”

Zi Xuyi is considered to be the most motivated among these Yu clan remnants. He studied human knowledge and arithmetic very hard, and even his mastery of human language was extraordinary.

When Wang Qi was writing the history of arithmetic, he also cooperated with him. Occasionally, he also came to the Yu clan to catch strong men, and asked Zi Xuyi to write some odds and ends.

He did not expect that Zi Xuyi was still the only remaining master of characters in the Yu Clan.

Zi Xuyi led Wang Qi to a basement. This place is full of books, all of which are instruments. Zi Xuyi said: “During the great retreat, Your Majesty ordered us to bring this set of Tianjia dictionary passed down from generation to generation by King Wen. This is the most complete dictionary of the Yu Clan. If Mr. really wants to learn it, This is the best.”

Wang Qi nodded with satisfaction; “Very good, very good…”

Zi Xuyi said: “What do you want to learn, sir? Xun Xue? Gu Xue? Or…”

“Why do you both It started with this set.” Wang Qi waved his hand: “No, learning must be learned, but before learning, I want to ask you a question.”

Zi Xuyi was stunned: “Sir, please speak. ”

“Do you know the ‘signified’ and ‘signifier’ of language?”

This question is what every linguistics major on the planet learns in the first class after college.

Its origin is the Swedish linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, the father of modern linguistics Saussure. Saussure’s “General Linguistics Course” completely rewrote the existence of “linguistics” as a discipline. Before Saussure, the study of linguistics was the category of historical, linguistic and comparative studies. From Saussure, linguists began to study the structure of self-talking language.

“General Linguistics Course” is about the basics of methods for studying natural language structure.

Language is a two-sided system. A word has a signified and a signifier. “Signified” refers to an abstract concept, while “signifier” refers to the language of the word.

In Saussure’s view, there is a collection in the world. Each element in this set corresponds to one or more concepts in the objective world. And every word in any language corresponds to an element in this set. This concept is similar to Plato’s “ideological world” concept.

For Saussure, the “structure” of language is an objective matter.

This is the difference between “structuralism” and the structuralism of the Bourbaki school of mathematics, the structuralism of linguistics.

It is with these basic structures that mathematical concepts with axiomatic properties naturally lead to those ideas of Saussure.

It is possible to reduce language activities to strings of symbols produced according to some formal rules, and the symbols are associated with meanings in an idiomatic and arbitrary way.

In fact, the use of mechanical language is completed under the guidance of this kind of thinking.

In this world, though, it’s hard to make such a point of view in the early days of civilization.

Because, in this world, the cultivator’s ability to act is very powerful. Even in the early stages of civilization, monks were sufficient to undertake the task of “communication”. Within a species and a civilization, there are at most two or three languages, and the rest are dialects.

Without this contrast between different languages, it would be much more difficult to realize this importance.

Moreover, under normal circumstances, there is no need to do this kind of thinking. After all, a civilization only has one or two languages, and it is enough to learn one.

It is because Wang Qi was interested in “structuralism” that he threw out this structuralist linguistics at the moment when the human race came into contact with the Yi people.

In fact, the knotted ropes of the Yi people can also be divided into “signifiers” and “signifiers”. “Signified” means the knot, and “signifier” is the structure of the knot in three-dimensional space and the voice it represents.

This is still true even for the Yi language.

After listening to Wang Qi’s explanation of the “signified” and “signifier” and accepting the idea of “semiotics”, Zi Xuyi almost bowed to the ground and said ashamed: “After reading books for decades, Xi I have written words for decades, but I don’t even understand the essence of this ‘symbol’. If it wasn’t for Mr. Wang Qi’s advice, I’m afraid that all sentient beings would be kept in the dark… I am ashamed to kill me, I am ashamed to kill me!”

Wang Qi had a mouthful of old blood stuck in his throat: “Brother Zixu, don’t kill me like this, it makes it difficult for me to study!”

“Well, what kind of face do students have to teach Mr. Wang Qi?” Zixu Yi Dao: “I don’t dare to be laughable and generous…”

“How can you be ridiculous and generous?” Wang Qi said, “I’m really not as good as you in terms of understanding of words…

” Yi Dao: “Mr. Wang Qi is already well versed in the principles of writing, so why should he abandon the basics and go to the bottom to seek the method of exegesis?”

“Hey, I said that your Yuzu philology is nothing but exegesis?” Wang Qi Unhappy: “How come I ‘deeply understand the truth of words’? How much do I know myself better than you?”

“This…” Zi Xuyi thought about it and felt that it was indeed reasonable. Although Mr. Wang Qi is unreliable, he has to pull him to make up some auspicious meanings when giving gifts to friends, but his knowledge is always true, perhaps, he can really see things he can’t see, Not sure.

Therefore, Zi Xuyi could only bow again and said, “I understand.”

Wang Qi was also helpless. If he could, he was really unwilling to deal with these literary and youthful races. The Yu Clan, the Beauty God, the True Flame God, and the Ming Clan, which one didn’t make him laugh and laugh, and he was exhausted?

However, he really has to deal with these guys.

How to say, this is paving the way for “formal linguistics”.

Formal Linguistics is a subject that is a sibling of computer science. One of the early achievements of formal linguistics, “Tue Grammar” and “Word Problem”, is one of the starting points of computer language. This is the earliest attempt by mathematicians to perform mathematical operations on language, and it is the modern language of Saussure. A natural extension of learning.

And further, it is Chomsky’s “Syntax Structure”.

“Syntax Structure” is hailed as “the greatest achievement of linguistics in the 20th century”, but in fact, its influence has gone beyond the concept of “linguistics” and extended to “computer science”.

In other words, as a “linguist” Chomsky, the universality of his linguistics has transcended natural language and penetrated into the more basic high-level language. The Chomsky system is covered in basic courses in computer science because it conveys insights into many formal languages.

And biologists also use Chomsky’s results to explain some phenomena in biology. Niels Gilner, winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, explained the human immune system with Chomsky’s generative model, and he likened “various features of protein structure” to “the various components of generative grammar”. Gilner’s Stockholm Nobel Lecture was titled “Generative Grammar of the Immune System”.

Of course, after the concept of “central dogma” was established, the concept of information science invaded the life sciences. Information science concepts such as transcription, translation, and expression have long been part of the life sciences.

But this is the first time to enter the field of life science as a “linguist”.

He even entered the history of mathematics and biology.

Objectively speaking, the unwitting cooperation between Wang Qi and Ai Qinglan was a natural application of Chomsky’s theory.

And what Wang Qi wants to accomplish is this part.

Linguistics over linguistics.

Linguistics capable of instructing all calculator languages and grammars.

It can be applied to the metamorphosis method, and even the rune language of all spells.

And all of this requires the completion of “mathematical operations on words”. In this way, linguistics itself will continue to deepen with the study of arithmetic, instead of being superficial, exhausting the origin of history and humanities.

In Shenzhou, any concept bound to “arithmetic” means that “all methods are immortal, and Taoism is not lost”.

If this step is completed, the calculator language can be further deepened and simplified, and more people can be involved in the research and development of Wang Qi’s calculator, so as to truly “gather the wisdom of everyone”.

Moreover, Wang Qi Healing does have the capital to do so.

Chomsky also belongs to the kind of great scholar who “only the dead can compare with”. However, Wang Qi did not fail to complete his achievements independently, and even made some progress in turn.

The reason is very simple, the gift of beauty.

The languages collected by Meishen are vast, and the number of languages is even greater than the total number of human beings who have ever existed on earth. A person can learn several languages, and they can’t finish them all.

Chomsky, as a linguist, could not have learned so many languages.

Moreover, these languages are not only sound wave languages, but also various forms such as light waves, spiritual waves, and electromagnetic waves.

Although, it is not necessary to know many languages to become the greatest mathematician.

However, it is like Wang Qi’s advocacy of “practicing oral arithmetic every day is the foundation of becoming a mathematician”. If you are not willing to practice mental arithmetic and develop a natural sense of “numbers”, then becoming a mathematician is just nonsense.

The same goes for linguistics. If you learn enough languages, you will naturally be able to produce “insights” that are close to Tao.

Not to mention? “Language proficiency” is also mixed with the insights of the ultimate literary youth like Meishen.

Wang Qi needs to incorporate these insights into the theoretical scope of arithmetic.

The only problem is that Wang Qi’s access language was given by someone else. He can only count it, but he doesn’t know why…

[End of this Chapter]