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three. exquisite corpse: form and content. Folding chairs. Parts of speech. Nouns (from latin nomen , “name”) A word for a person, place, thing, or action, or a class of person, place, thing, or action Examples: “examples”, “noun”, “George”, “Evanston”, “running”, “terrorist” Adjectives
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three exquisite corpse: form and content
Parts of speech • Nouns (from latin nomen, “name”) • A word for a person, place, thing, or action, or a class of person, place, thing, or action • Examples: “examples”, “noun”, “George”, “Evanston”, “running”, “terrorist” • Adjectives • A word that modifies a noun • Examples: “green”, “heavy”, “democratic” • Determiners (or “articles”) • Distinguish between a general versus a specific use of a noun • Examples: “a”, “the”, “some”, “which” • Verbs • Words that express actions, changes, or states of being • Examples: “go”, “went”, “is”, “love”, “has loved”
Exquisite corpse • “Game of folded paper that consists in having a sentence or a drawing composed by several persons, each ignorant of the proceeding collaboration” 1939 Abridged Dictionary of Surrealism (as copied off the wall at the Art Institute of Chicago) • A technique used by the early surrealists for creating unexpected combinations • Produces sentences that are grammatically correct • But semantically challeng(ing/ed) • One of the first uses of chance operations in composition “the exquisite/corpse/will drink/the new/wine”
Exquisite corpse drawings Source: http://anexquisitecorpse.net/explanation.shtml
Class sentences • The blue time bends the blue chocolate • A pretty cardboard predicates the suicidal sheep • The dirty muck becomes an elegant nugget • The sonorous Norris University Center laments a collapsed sun
Syntax • Fancy word for “grammar” • Describes how a language is composed of phrases • NounPhrase = determiner adjective noun • the exquisite corpse • a pickled monsoon • VerbPhrase = verb NounPhrase • eats a pickled monsoon • Sentence = NounPhrase VerbPhrase • the exquisite corpse eats a pickled monsoon • Can have different alternatives for a type of phrase • NounPhrase = noun | determiner noun | adjective noun | determiner adjective noun • The “|” character here means “or else” • an exquisite corpse bought the president
Phrase structure of a sentence Linguists notate phrase structure by bracketing: • [sentence [NounPhrase the exquisite corpse] [VerbPhrase [verbwill drink] [NounPhrase the new wine]]] Or more readably … • [sentence [NounPhrase the exquisite corpse] [VerbPhrase [verbwill drink] [NounPhrase the new wine]]]
Nested grammar • Some verbs are followed by entire sentences • VerbPhrase = verb | verb NounPhrase | verb Sentence • [Sentence [NounPhrase We] [VerbPhrase proclaim [Sentence [NounPhrase the exquisite corpse] [VerbPhrase [verb will drink] [NounPhrase the new wine]]]]] • This is called “nesting” or “recursion”
Referring expressions in English • Phrases that refer to an object or objects • “Robin” • “James” • “The TAs of this class” • “the grad students of Ian” • “the people in 324” • “France” • “capitalism” • “The sum of 2 and 3” • “The mother of the TA of this class” • We’ll focus on two kinds • Names (“Robin”, “Rob”, “France”, “capitalism”) • Functional expressions (the X of Y)
A deeply nested referring expression • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of [the father of [the nation of [the mother of [the TA of [this class]]]]]]]] Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of [the father of [the nation of [the mother of [the TA of [this class]]]]]]]] Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of [the father of [the nation of [the mother of [the TA of [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395 Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of [the father of [the nation of [the mother of [the TA of Robin [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395 Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of [the father of [the nation of [the mother of Robin’s mom [the TA of Robin [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395 Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of [the father of [the nation of The United States [the mother of Robin’s mom [the TA of Robin [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395 Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of [the father of George Washington [the nation of The United States [the mother of Robin’s mom [the TA of Robin [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395 Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of [the grandfather of George’s grandpa [the father of George Washington [the nation of The United States [the mother of Robin’s mom [the TA of Robin [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395 Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of [the mother of George’s great grandma [the grandfather of George’s grandpa [the father of George Washington [the nation of The United States [the mother of Robin’s mom [the TA of Robin [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395 Please forgive the sexist expression “father of the nation”
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [the mother of George’s great great grandma [the mother of George’s great grandma [the grandfather of George’s grandpa [the father of George Washington [the nation of The United States [the mother of Robin’s mom [the TA of Robin [this class]]]]]]]] cs 395
Meaning follows form • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” Robin’s mom Robin’s gmom Washington Washington’s gdad W’s GD’s mom W’s GD’s gmom CS-380 USA TA mother nation father grand- father mother mother
What have we learned? • Media have • Structure/form/syntax • Meaning/content/semantics • The two are interdependent, but semi-autonomous • Media are generativeTheir grammars can be filled in in an infinite number of ways • People are incredibly good at extracting meaning, even from “meaningless” media • Chance operations can produce interesting juxtapositions • Specify a structure • Fill in positions randomly • (There are other ways of doing chance operations too…)
Syntax of meta • We’ll be using a programming language called meta • It has a very simple syntax (we’ll modify this later): • Expression = word | number | “[“ Expressions … “]” • Phrases are explicitly grouped using brackets • Examples • [box 10 10] • [point 100 100] • [line [point 100 100] [point 20 20]] • We’ll talk about semantics next …
Robin’s mom Robin’s gmom Washington Washington’s gdad W’s GD’s mom W’s GD’s gmom CAT-380 USA TA mother nation father grand- father mother mother Our example in Meta • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [mother-of [mother-of [grandfather-of [father-of [nation-of [mother-of [TA-of cs-380]]]]]]] I don’t expect you to understand this yet
Robin’s mom Robin’s gmom Washington Washington’s gdad W’s GD’s mom W’s GD’s gmom CAT-380 USA TA mother nation father grand- father mother mother Or alternatively… • “The mother of the mother of the grandfather of the father of the nation of the mother of the TA of this class” • [with washington = [father-of [nation-of [mother-of [TA-of cs-380]]]] [mother-of [mother-of [grandfather-of washington]]]