Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

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Creyeditor
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by Creyeditor »

Ear of the Sphinx wrote:I'd say that “two plus two equals four” is a transcription of a methematical formula “2+2=4” and, as such, this type of diagrams isn't designed to deal with that.

“plus” looks like a conjunction because infix operators tend to look like conjunctions. (In general, they have a similar role.)

But then, the mathematical notation doesn't always work like a natural language. There are, for instance, formulas like “ee equals em cee squared” (E=mc²), with multiplication by juxtaposition (“null” infix operator), which doesn't have a counterpart in the natural language (“null conjunction”?).
There are certainly languages with null conjunctions. At least Dvandvas look very similar.
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by Ear of the Sphinx »

Does it have a counterpart in English, though?
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by Creyeditor »

I don't think it has.
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by lsd »

It seems to me that the absence of conjunction of multiplication is an adaptation from natural language where
Five times thing is five things
5xT = 5T
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by eldin raigmore »

I am still following this with much interest! (Although I haven't posted in a while.)
Thanks to everyone who has chimed in!
Especially to Creyeditor, for the diagram.

I agree "plus" is likelier a conjunction than, say, an adposition; though as has been pointed out, it could be in the process of transitioning from one part-of-speech to another.

And all the tangential topics are just fascinating!

Thanks again!
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by svld »

"+" and "=" in 2+2=4 are verbs in Chinese and in Chinese grammar the sentence is fine.
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by GrandPiano »

svld wrote:"+" and "=" in 2+2=4 are verbs in Chinese and in Chinese grammar the sentence is fine.
Well, sort of, at least:

二加二等于四
èr jiā èr děng yú sì
two add two equal to four

two plus two equals four

In a non-mathematical context, I'm pretty sure that the subject of 加 jiā "to add" is always the person or thing doing the adding; however, in the above statement, the subject of 加 is not the person or thing doing the adding but the thing being added to, which would probably be strange in a non-mathematical context.


Additionally, this is more pedantic than relevant to the discussion, but 等于 děng yú isn't really a verb, but an adjective (等 děng "equal") and a preposition (于 yú "in, at", here better translated as "to"), similar to English "equal to". While 等于 could be described as a verb meaning "to be equal to", especially since the individual characters are rather antiquated on their own* outside of compound words, I think it's more accurate to analyze it as a set phrase that borrows classical usage. Like in English, you could also read = as 是 shì "is", which is a verb, but like in English, that's probably more of a colloquial shorthand than a "proper" alternate reading of the equals sign.

*although 等 is commonly used in the modern language as a verb meaning "to wait", and has a variety of other meanings in other contexts
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Re: Diagram "Two plus two equals four"?

Post by eldin raigmore »

Still following; still interested!
"Thanks" @ the most recent posters.
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