Verbs and nonsense was Re: Kynn's Analysis of CD Web Accessibility

2nd attempt: verbs and problems with their translation into a symbol
language.

can I hope was explicit.
I perhaps should have defined verbs as a central problem... puns are a
special case.

history of communication (semaphology?) is not one of my greatest strengths,
and my knowledge of Chomsky severely limited. It is agreed that much
communication is not via the meaning of the individual words but via the
context, or grammar. This has its benefits as many words may have nearly
random symbol replacement and not effect reading if systematic.

Handshaking may no longer be a buzz word on the internet, however it seems
to me that those sites that develop the most professional connections are
easiest in use.
The current segue when changing sites is similar to stop, whereas very
frequently, and (in fact if one believes links are predictive then) ideally
this is in fact the place where the verb should be.
That is this is the turning point of fiction and film.
Critical to understanding of plot.

In case you thought I had lost it and was rambling, a study of symbol and
icon use within CD will quickly enlighten you to the fact that verb
representation is far and away the least transparent in translation.
Animation for apparently obvious reasons offers direct means of representing
action, however it is very time consuming to author. Additionally some
people will be adverse to the blink factor.
There is a problem in making the verb concrete, it will be far more
difficult to make the action general.
To draw a generic cat is achievable, a generic kick almost possible, but a
generic dance difficult, and a thought bubble is ok,  however consider
running for president. This is very difficult to replace symbolically though
most languages will have another way of expressing this.

wash: do we mean teeth, hair, privates, the dog, the car, the dishes, the
clothes......


However there is an enormous amount that symbol and photograph replacement
does achieve.
It greatly aids context development, and enjoyment by those able to
recognise the content.

lewis carroll, edward lear, ee cummins, spike milligan, rudyard kipling, dr
seuss, aesop, james joyce and homer all wrote nonsense well, it's a skill I
signally lack.
Though I've heard it said that it is one of the strengths of the english
tongue.

jay@peepo.com

special needs teacher
web accessibility consultant

Received on Saturday, 8 April 2000 04:55:39 UTC