Fabio Sammarchi’s ‘Master thesis’ on C



Fabio Sammarchi’s ‘Master thesis’ on Mr. C. K. Ogden’s “BASIC English”: an excerpt.

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See Sammarchi’s thesis on BASIC English at academia.edu:

(… ‘A last remark, but, what a fundamental one, because an OBJECTIFYING remark it is!)

Drawing from the fact that the collocates in the ‘GBED’ (General Basic English Dictionary):

(Quote): “According to the BYU-BNC, an electronic version of the ‘BNC’ (British National Corpus), a 100-million word corpus of British English, is freely offered by Mr Mark Davies of Brigham Young University (Idaho, U.S.A.) at

- .

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Information provided by the ‘FIVE MINUTE TOUR’:

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Remark: NO human mind can equal the work of comparison which a computer program can!

NOTE!: Another automated tool which I did not check out for ‘collocates’, to test the quality of the ‘BASIC English-wordlist’ might be found at the ‘CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH CORPUS’ which has been used by . (Quote): (With approved use of) the two billion word Cambridge English Corpus (!) - CONTACT: CHARLIE@CHARLIE- -See also document: “A New General Service List: The Better Mousetrap We’ve Been Looking for? (article published in 2014)-

the authors have created a New General Service List (NGSL) of core high frequency vocabulary words for students of English as a second language . First published in early 2013, the NGSL provides over 92% coverage for most general English texts (the highest of any corpus-derived general English word list to date). NGSL contains 2801 words

Note: the 1st General Service List (GSL) was created in 1953 by Ogden’s opponent M. West.

A BREAKTHROUGH with regard to the objective validity of Ogden’s 850 wordlist (?!)

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3 possible trial exercises to compare ‘COLLOCATES’ with Ogden’s ‘RADIAL CONCEPTS’

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A question: are ‘collocates’ serving as instances of “Ludwig Wittgenstein II“ (Philosophical Investigations, 1953) concept of ‘family resemblances’, stating the idea that “One is defined by his friends!” instead of defining each word, leading necessarily to circularity in definition!

A remark: Ogden stated repeatedly that the ‘BASIC word selection’ has been grounded upon defining the words most useful (cf. MM), and, not on the (1.000) words most frequently used!

If he has been successful in properly defining these words, then, -in my view- the collocates of all or of at least of the vast majority of the NOUNS (and of the ADJECTIVES) of the 850 words of his ‘BE’wordlist, must prove his case by providing more collocations than the other NOUNS (and ADJECTIVES ) to be found in 1.000 (or 2801_NSGL) most frequent wordlist! This statement does not concern their frequency of occurrence, but their combinatory power!

QUESTION: Is this research-hypothesis wrong! (The null-hypothesis is that Ogden is right.)

(Note also that answering properly the question stated here above requires a research design, which I am unable to give, but a native speaker computer linguist can design such a program.)

‘PANOPTIC CONJUGATION DIAGRAMS’ (“PCD”) of BASIC English by C. K. Ogden

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(1) ‘BE’-Ogden_NOUN-word “WOUND” (provisional): see McMasterUniversity Archives.

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(Title) “Panoptic diagram of Wound”: ‘ ?result ‘ (= a preliminary result!) – Increase screen to 500%!

NOOT: handgeschreven woorden zijn de (door substitutie van een AxB-combinatie of AB-combinatie), waarbij A het woord in het midden van het (cirkel!)diagram is en ‘B’ een straal (radius) of ‘as-woord’ vertegenwoordigt) weg te laten woorden! - (Use the ‘Google Translate’ “DUTCH -> English” device!)

Carry out a circular clockwise reading, starting with the upper left corner (nearing “Definition/Route”).

- Left upper quadrant + to read clockwise (starting on the X-axis): hurt, injury, datura (= doornappel; DUTCH)-> burn & crack & lame, (TRANSLATION) vulnus;

Right upper quadrant + to read clockwise: (starting on the Y-axis): skin & limb & rupture & limb & maimed (= verminkt; DUTCH), scar, hack, (scratch), (sore), wale/weal (= striem; DUTCH), tear, lazaret(to) (?) or (= leprozenhuis; DUTCH), cut, (bruise);

Right under quadrant + to read clockwise: (starting on the X-axis): pest, slit, abrasion, scratch, (Welt)mutilation, hurt/harm, (kill), whole, health, healed, sound, sore (bruise), vulnerable, septic bleeding, heal dressing, ‘ red x ‘ (= reddisch?), mortally (wounded), casualty, station(ary?);

Left under quadrant + to read clockwise: (starting on the Y-axis): wounded, (zounds), stigmath (or stigmata?), insult, (pang (= plotselinge) pain, (CAUSE) physical stress, poison, sublimation, suppuration, pierce (= stekende) slash, (puncture) shot, hit, sored, crippled, stab, battered, pox.

(2) ‘BE-Ogden_NOUN-word “ACT(ION)” (provisional): see McMasterUniversity Archives.

(‘PCD’ = ‘Panoptic Conjugation Diagram’)

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NOTE ! : since I cannot read most of the words, even after enlarging the screen to a 500%, I welcome the “PCD” ‘ACTION’ -having been retained as ‘ACT’ in the final BASIC wordlist- written out as a list of (English) words so that I can test them (additionally) for its collocates!

(3) “MAN”: see H. R. Walpole, Semantics, 1941, p 187-192 , titled ‘A Definition vocabulary’. Panoptic diagram scheme: top of print screen: METAPHOR bottom ROOT & ASSOCIATION

To be used it in combination with the list of conjugates to be found in Walpole’s ‘Semantics’.

A question: why has Ogden not made use of a selection of hyperonyms or superordinates of the Roget’s Thesaurus, (1852, …) -the “Aristotelian (1.000 categories) Roget’s Thesaurus”- to construe partially his Panoptic Conjugation Diagram scheme? Or did he add it to the MM?

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H. R. Walpole lists up 25 definition routes (p. 128-135), using Ogden’s Opposition!, namely:

Route 1. This is it. – DIRECT SYMBOLIZATION

Route 2. It is similar to this. – SIMILARITY

Route 3. Its name may be translated by this word. - TRANSLATION

Route 4. It is contained in this.- PART AND WHOLE

Route 5. It contains this. – WHOLE AND PART

Route 6. It is the opposite of this. – OPPOSITION BY CUT (See Ogden, Opposition.)

Route 7. It is at the opposite end of scale from this. – OPPOSITION BY SCALE (id.)

Route 8. It resides in this place. – PLACE: WHERE

Route 9. It comes from this place. – PLACE: WHENCE

Route 10. It has this age. – AGE

Route 11. It lived in this period. – PERIOD

Route 12. It has this shape. – FORM

Route 13. It has this size. - SIZE

Route 14. It has such a quality, characteristic or property to this extent. – DEGREE

Route 15. It is made of this material. – SUBSTANCE

Route 16. Its material is in this condition. – STATE

Route 17. It causes this emotional reaction in a human. – CAUSATION: EMOTIVE

Route 18. It has this effect on the human mind. – CAUSATION: MENTAL

Route 19. It has this effect on the human senses. – CAUSATION: SENSORY

Route 20. It has this physical effect. – CAUSATION: PHYSICAL

Route 21. It behaves in this way. – BEHAVIOR

Route 22. It is of this sex. – SEX

Route 23. It serves this purpose. – USE

Route 24. He has this family connection with that person. – FAMILY RELATIONS

Route 25. He has this legal connection with that person. – LEGAL RELATIONS

(And Route 26 added by H. R. Walpole.) Any other kind of connection or connections, simple or complex, that you can think of. - PRAGMATISM

Walpole states that “these twenty-five routes are not the key to the riddle of the universe. They are a prescription for the more efficient use of words.

(Note: the article of Ogden in PSYCHE, January 1930 under his pseudonym Adelyne More allows one to create 40 definition routes in (grand?) total.) See also his Scheme of Oppositions

“MAN” (according to Walpole; ‘BE’ stands for ‘Basic English’, quoted from pages 190-191):

Directly symbolized, man is man (BE), he or she (BE).

Like other men, he is human.

Translated into other languages, he is hombre, homme, Mann (etc.)

as well as guy, bloke, and chap.

Parts of him are his head (BE), heart (BE), hand (BE), foot (BE).

Considered himself as a part, he is a member of a family (BE), a society (BE), and a nation (BE).

Considered in terms of Generalization, he becomes an animal (BE), a living (BE) creature, and a thing (BE).

His direct opposite, from one point of view, is a woman (BE).

And his opposite on the age scale is a baby (BE), a child, a boy (BE), or a girl (BE).

With respect to location, he is an occupant, a resident, and an inhabitant.

(Whatever the name of the place he came from, it could naturally, as a proper name,

be used in Basic.)

His age may stamp him as an nonagenarian.

History may have made him an Elizabethan, in which case Basic would prefer to say that he “was living at the time (or under the rule) of Queen Elizabeth.”

His shape may entitle us to call him a brachycephalic, or even a Caliban or a Quasimodo.

His size may qualify him as a giant or a dwarf or a pigmy.

If it is only partially a man, it may be a sphinx, a centaur, or a ghost.

Regarded from the material point of view, he is so much flesh, blood (BE), skin (BE), bone (BE), muscle (BE), nerve (BE), and so on.

He may undergo a change of condition which will oblige us to treat him as a corpse.

His effect upon his neighbours may qualify him as a darling or a scoundrel.

In their intellectual judgment, he may be a genius.

His effect upon their eyes may entitle him to call himself a Negro. (Remember 1941!)

As a result of his or somebody else’s actions, he may become an assassin or a victim.

In respect to sex, he or she will be a male (BE) or a female (BE), a man (BE) or a woman (BE), a boy (BE) or a girl (BE).

In behaviour, he may be a drunkard; and his occupation may classify him as an editor, a soldier, or a tailor.

In his family, he or she may be a parent, a father (BE) or a mother (BE), a brother (BE), a sister (BE) – and will certainly be a son (BE) or a daughter (BE).

Legally speaking, he will almost certainly be a citizen and at one time or another he may be a plaintiff or a defendant.

(Further quote) “The non-Basic words -in italics- in this little essay on ‘MAN’ are examples of the sort of word a definition vocabulary a word can do without. … The theory of definition was an invaluable tool for eliminating words which were not essential. … As a general rule, Mr. Ogden, eliminated words if he could define them in ten Basic words or less.

But it would have been bad policy to be hidebound here; and he included in his list 200 concrete nouns, the names of objects which could be defined or illustrated, but which are handy symbols to have for ordinary conversation, and which make useful, comprehensible metaphors.” I, however, agree on the ‘pictorial nouns’ with the view of Rudolph Flesh (1944) “Who stated that the selection of only 200 pictorial nouns is foolish! (e.g. BASIC’s breakfast is solely concerned with the traditional bread and butter and milk and eggs”, but, not with jam, cereals, and so on; and ‘a banana’ -which is not being mentioned in the Basic 850 wordlist- is a long yellow fruit -a purely descriptive definition, and, not an ANALYTIC definition containing the explicit use of a reference to a more general word or a concept as, I believe, the 400 ‘general nouns’ or ‘necessary names’ are being defined-, not shown as an image in the list of 200 pictorials. Therefore, I consider the list of Basic English “400 (general) nouns” to constitute the true minimal set for representing ‘(Standard) English’ in cooperation with 250 other words, equalling a vocabulary of 650 words instead of the 850 words. However, for speaking a proper subset of English one should, in my opinion, select all of the words of the ‘Wider Basic wordlist’ of 2.000 words, created under the guidance of Mr. Mumford), which can be pictured, since they can be defined in a purely descriptive way in 10 Basic words or less. (The result of this last suggestion might be that the BASIC wordlist would end up with having well over a 1.000 words. And, I also happen to believe that the use of unambiguous image/s, representing a word and the complete set of all its variations -e.g. ‘a cup’, ‘a bowl’, and so on-, makes it easier to learn the meaning of a word, then having to use Bentham’s technique of paraphrasis to use a purely descriptive definition.)

…

(Quoting Walpole again): “In Basic one may use the names of concrete things which are not in the 850 list, provided one first introduces the name by pointing to the thing, or by a description or definition -both ways using the lemmas of the GBED; WH!- or illustration, in writing.”

ADDENDUM “MAN”: -with a number of overlapping- as found in Adolph Myers’ ‘Basic and the teaching of English in India’ (1938) as:

an inmate (a man in a certain place)

a Southener (a man from a certain place)

an octogenarian (a man of a certain age)

a dwarf (a man of a certain size)

a centaur (a man to a certain extent)

a friend (a man regarded emotionally)

a beau (a man causing certain mental reactions)

a negro (a man causing certain sensory perceptions) – (In the days of 1938!)

a father (a man acting as a physical agent)

a soldier (a man for certain use or purpose)

a lover (a man behaving in a certain way)

a male (sex)

a brother (family relation)

a tenant (legal relation)

&

‘GO” (BASIC operator): (see Hugh R. Walpole, Semantics, 1941, p. 193)

GO -> penetrate

GO -> climb

GO -> enter

GO -> approach

GO -> descend

GO -> emerge

GO -> leave

Using the seven direction words in conjunction with go will replace those verbs? Prepositions, those operators which symbolize positions and directions

“ IN , OUT , TO , FROM , WITH , BY, and others “.

AND

Tom Burns Haber, Handbook of Basic English (1945); (see ’).

Information source: Miss Robin Camille Davis, who uses ‘wordwheel’ in another fashion:

(May be something more on ‘PCD’ is to be found at the library of the Ohio State University, where Tom B. Haber has been a staff member at the English department, in his article ‘New light on Basic English’, published in 1947, but, so far I have been unable to take a look at it.)

‘PCD’ in the form of a ‘wordwheel’ of the BASIC operator “GO”

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AND ‘PCD’ in the form of a ‘wordwheel’ of the BASIC operator “MAKE”

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That is all that I have on the subject of the BASIC English ‘Panoptic Conjugation Diagrams’!

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