joe andress wrote:

> FOR THOSE WHO ENJOY LANGUAGE:

> Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Although most of your statements would fall into the same category, the
above statement has been cited as a classic example of the problem with
language recognition by a computer (well, not just recognition, but a
semantic understanding).  Google turns up a boatload of references, but
I think it was Chomsky that first used this example.  Simple language
recognition accomplished, what does this mean semantically?

Time (noun) flies (verb) like (prep.phrase) an arrow (noun).

Time (adj) flies (noun) like (verb) an arrow (dir object).

Time (imperative verb) flies (dir obj) like (prep.phrase) an arrow.

(My English breakdown may be the fault of years of neglect).

Language recognition (as in current DragonSpeak or other software) has
come a long way with recognition and even some semantics, or more
accurately "context" to differentiate hominems (two, too, to) but there
is much ground left to cover before we achieve semantic language
recognition, e.g., Star Trek computer responding to verbal commands.

Jeff

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