Interesting Links for 11-05-2020

[andrewducker]

Coronavirus: The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

(tags:virus biology pandemic advice )

President Trump nicely captures the spirit of Mother's Day

(tags:mother politics USA wtf )

An Animal Crossing developer on how they made the game inviting and comforting

(tags:games design )

A novel mutation 62,000 years ago led to a new way of thinking and language-use

(tags:language mutation prehistory humans )

Qatar Airways fires pilot, hands them £130,000 bill

(tags:airlines qatar OhForFucksSake )

Comments

Recursive Language

[agoodwinsmith]

So, I'm reading the mutants twerked our language article, and they keep using the term "recursive language", which I understand what "recursive" can mean, and what "language" can mean, but how this article uses them together seems very specific, so it is time for some research.

First site says "... is called recursive if it is a recursive subset ..." which means that it is gonna take me a while. Sheesh.

It's recursive because it's recursive. Very good.

Re: Recursive Language

[agoodwinsmith]

Okay. This one is better:
https://www.thoughtco.com/recursion-grammar-1691901

"...English permits more than one adjective in a sequence in this manner is an example of a more general feature of languages that linguists call recursion. In English, prenominal adjectives are recursive. Simply put, this means that prenominal adjectives can be 'stacked,' with several appearing successively in a string, each of them attributing some property to the noun. In principle, there is no limit to the number of adjectives that can modify a noun."