Psyche's Photo of the Week.
The principle of an underlying grammar
is unusual in the natural world.
A grammar is an example of a
“discrete combinatorial system.”
A finite number of discrete elements
(words, in this case)
are sampled and permuted to create
larger structures (in this case, sentences)
with properties that are quite distinct from those
of their elements.
(Emergent properties and values,
rising up in emergency from the
discrete indiscretion of parts,
parties, participants, & partialities:
a part to parts to whole
sacramentalism)
Much of the complicated systems we see
in the world, in contrast, are blending systems,
like geology, paint-mixing, cooking, sound, light
and weather. In a blending systems the properties
of the combination lie between the properties of
its elements and the properties of the elements
are lost in the average or mixture.
It may not be a coincidence that the two systems i
n the universe that most impress us with their
open-ended complex design—life and mind—are
based on discrete combinatorial systems.
(Specimens from Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct,
reformmated to fit my screed..)
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