Lately I’ve been watching the BilliSpeaks youtube channel, which documents an owner’s communication with her cat.
She talks to the cat using a set of buttons, each of which play a word.
Put aside the question of how much the cat understands, which it’s impossible to know but very easy to debate. Ultimately the cat, Billi, apparently likes to press the buttons, which could be considered a good enough reason for the activity in itself.
We should note that the owner doesn’t only use the buttons, ofc, but usually supplements the statement or question with standard English, conveying vocal tone.
So, what is the structure of the button syntax? It’s a simple language.
Pluralisation is ambiguous, because there’s no need for it be specific. The main common nouns are food, catnip, mousey (a mouse toy), and pets.
There are no grammatical articles. So food and catnip, not the food or some catnip.
Verbs don’t conjugate.
No personal pronouns. There are only two individuals to be referred to: the cat, Billi, and the owner, Mom, and so they are referred to by name. These names are not always used, either, when they could be inferred from context.
Questions can be marked with a marker hmm? placed at the end of the sentence. The owner doesn’t always use this.
English: I love you.
Buttons: Mom love Billi.
English: Do you want catnip?
Buttons: Want catnip hmm?
Since the last time they did N2 “construct sentences from lego” problems.
Since the training goal is grammar structures, they use simple words in the problems which makes it really easy. Although I still messed up one problem, number 8:
No matter how I changed the order, it didn’t quite feel right.
And the same thing for N1.
This one is a bit difficult. But I got 6! On the other hand, I only got 6.
While the Japanese professional go world uses a fair ranking system that depends on the number of wins that one gets in professional tournament games, the amateur system is quite different. One can earn amateur ranking diplomae by participating in regular ranking tournaments and getting a good enough score on a particular level – or else you can just buy a diploma with money.
What is this word diplomae?
The basic English plural would, ofc, be simply diplomas. Antii interpreted diploma as a feminine Latinate noun of the first declension: -a, -ae.
However, diploma is actually a third-declension neuter noun in Latin, with the plural diplomata.
This is the octopus, octopi mistake (octopus in Latin pluralises to octopodes) of believing that there are only three Latin declensions (m. -us, -i; f. -a, -ae; n. -um, -a).
The nobi is a common Japanese go term that is usually translated as ‘extension’, or more rarely as ‘stretch’. It denotes a move played directly next to one’s own stone, usually with the intention of increasing its liberties.
I found this gloss example on Oryx’s SL blog, from the old KGS community.
Comment: TheCaptain is very good at semeais, and has good tesuji sense… but he lacks fuseki
Oryx’s beginner gloss: He’s very good at mutual capturing contests, races where both parties are enclosed, have at most one eye and are reducing each other’s liberties, where the first one to put the opponent into atari and then capture their stones wins the race. Also, he has a good sense of local position play – winning local fights. But he seems to lack a good strong opening.
Beginners often have problems with kos, probably because the game becomes more like ping-pong, with the activity jumping backwards and forwards on the board. At last the secrets of the ko are revealed in this dictionary of terms and concepts to allow you to achieve full understanding.
COINCIDE (ko inside) The place where coincidence (ko incidents) happen.
COINCIDENCE (ko incidents) Several things happening at the same place.
CO-OPERATE (ko operate) The capture of a stone in ko. Two people can co-operate excessively if they both want to.
COMMISSION (ko mission) A threat made by the commissioner which it is expected the correspondent will correspond to.
CORRESPOND (ko respond) The answer by the correspondent to the commissioner’s commission.
COMMISSIONER (ko missioner) The maker of threats.
CORRESPONDENT (ko respondent) Someone who replies.
CONNECT (ko necked) The closing of the throat of the ko, which prohibits further co-operation (ko operation).
COMMEND (ko mend) Defend so that the ko is not so serious.
CORRECT (ko wrecked) The finishing of the ko by further capture, especially when the commission was inadequate.
COSTING (ko sting) The pain when the ko is correct (ko wrecked).
COFFIN (ko fin) A more serious costing (ko sting).
COMMIT (ko mitt) The hand that removes the captured stone.
COMMOTION (ko motion) Excessive co-operation.
COBBLERS (ko blurs) Much commotion (ko motion) in a lightning game.
CONNOTATION (ko notation) The little notes at the bottom of a Go diagram which are difficult for the connotator in a commotion.
COGENT (ko gent) A man who knows that he doesn’t fight kos.
COMIC (ko mick) An irish ko, which if won will result in the group having one eye.
COSINE (ko sign) Preparatory move of a comment (ko meant).
COHABIT (ko habit) A state two people can get into if they spend much time co-operating (ko operating).
COLLAPSE (ko lapse) The often terrible consequences of making a commission which is inadequate or mistaken.
I like that this guy is rather loud and more clear than some. On the other hand, he’s very fast-talking. Do Japanese even manage to think when talking?
Of course, another notable example is how the Watergate scandal (with its name deriving from the Watergate Hotel and Office building complex where it occurred) has inspired the widespread usage of the “-gate” suffix to name all sorts of other scandals.
The sewing machine sequence is a sequence along the edge, where a repetitive pattern forces one player to crawl along the edge, while the other player creates influence.
