Not a good fit
I made a stupid pun in previous item about woke math.

My pronums are x, f(x) and df(x)/dt.

X is exactly a pronum, but those math functions don't correspond to noun cases. They sort of halfway correspond to verb tenses or aspects.

What part of math would correspond to noun cases? I suppose set theory, but only in a limited way. Cases are dynamic and set theory is static. A set statement like 'x is in A' would fit genitive, and that's about all. There's no math way of expressing dative or accusative or instrumental.

= = = = =

Later extending the thought: We're accustomed to the tiresomely repeated Expert assertion that math is the universal tool, the universal language. Simply not true. Language is the best tool for thinking because it's a NATURAL PART of our minds.

But I mean more than just "writing helps you think". That's obvious. I mean that grammar can be used as a framework for thinking in the same way that addition and subtraction and integrals. The tool works best in languages where noun cases and verb forms are visible and chartable and algorithmic. The Latin descendants like Spanish have algorithmic verbs but no noun math. Teutonic languages have lost their algorithms entirely. (English has a Latin vocabulary, but it's Teutonic in grammar.) Russian has strongly algorithmic nouns and weakly algorithmic verbs. Hindi, though directly descended from totally algorithmic Sanskrit, has lost noun forms in the same way as the Latin descendants.

The agglutinative languages like Hungarian and Korean are STRICTLY algorithmic in all ways. They should offer the best tool for this purpose, the best framework for clear thinking.

As I've noted before, noun structure seems to be more important than verb structure, for reasons that I haven't figured out. A strong noun matrix helps to hold your thoughts in place when barraged by Sorosian confusion. A verb matrix ought to help, but the experimental evidence favors nouns for this purpose.

Continued in next item.

Labels: defensible cases, defensible times, Real World Math

  ¶ 2:52 PM