lateralus's Journal: Atoms and Words Part I

Atoms and Languages

Premise

The premise of this text is that every written language, whether written for a human audience or a computer interpreter is built out of atoms. Every language is built out of a basic set of words and minimalistic phrases which are the sole constituents of the entire language. Note that by deciding that worlds and phrases are the atoms, as opposed to letters I keep in the modern or physical usage of the world atom. Just as physical atoms are built out of gluons and muons, my language atoms are built out of letters, phrases and punctuation. The use of the word Atom in this case is somewhat of a misnomer.

You might also note that this use of the word Atom makes an atom out of the word and therefore self describing. It puts you in mind of the word Sesquipedalian.

If you do not agree with the above premise then you will not agree with the rest of this text.

Fluidity in language

If atoms of language exist then they surely can not be arranged in a Table of Elements like their physical counterparts. At least such a rigid arraignment would serve no purpose. The linguistic breakdown of several sentences in different written languages (including computer interpreted ones) may come up with conflicting definitions of what words or phrases can be characterized as atoms of that language.

Without a strict set of rules languages roam freely, people invent new phrases and words in spoken languages. People invent new computer languages and dialects of existing languages. Most importantly, people invent new mechanisms of extending and enhancing languages.

Flavors

What leads people in choosing, rearranging and then extending their verbal and computer based languages is the flavor of the language's atoms.

You might not expect atoms in languages to have flavors but if sub-atomic particles can have colors, why not give language atoms flavors?