Dear Colleagues,
I had a wonderful experience yesterday that brought me new appreciations of the past and new insights into possible futures for specialized research libraries, embodied meaning, and dictionary definitions. It began 3 blocks from my home at the American Philosophical Society in a room containing almost all of Benjamin Franklin’s personal library, one of the incredible resources gathered by the Society since its founding by Franklin in 1743. There the curator of printed documents on all the many subjects covered there, explained not only what one could learn from what Franklin had read, but how he worked during his life from his compilation of almanacs, the complete set of which was there. The conservation of rare books, and how books were published in Franklin’s time and beyond up to a paper on the Eniac computer in Nature in the 1950’s were presented and discussed within our small group. In the 18th century people also formed organizations to share and discuss books. One became the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, an excellent research library that offers high definition scanning services to other Art Institutions in the City as well as digital access to its extensive resources on 19th century architecture. The American Institute of Architects was organized there even as it remains a private circulating library with an outstanding speaker series and a program of awards for local authors. My point here is simply that both wonderful organizations have outstanding programs that reach beyond their membership to address issues of knowledge and culture both locally and abroad. Both also happen to be specialized research libraries with unusual histories and broader visions of their role. They have become my favorite institutions.
The evening at APS continued with a highly informative and entertaining talk by Kory Stamper, author of the celebrated new book "Word by Word: the Secret Life of Dictionaries". During the talk I began to realize that the theory of embodied meaning had no role in dictionaries in which descriptive definitions rely on epistemologies and examples of word use that lack intentional and contextual grounding. I began to think about the theories of Lakoff and Johnson and how they build on recurring patterns of embodied experience expressed through conceptual metaphors appropriate to the thinker’s purpose and the context of their expression. I thought that the many examples that have been the subject of research offer a sufficient basis for a trial of whether dictionaries could be designed on this model for instant adaption of term to subject by AI software. It should greatly enable the situation based interpretation and recall of information during communication if subject, background, and context can be established before processing, the idea I mentioned in my first reply to Don.
Incidentally, Old Philadelphia is a great place to live, because there are so many excellent institutions, many the first of their kind, and the oldest.
Or so I believe,
Chuck
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