#okay i love that data’s programming doesn’t allow him to store idioms as frozen phrases the way that humans do#which means he must process language as its root semantic meanings not as specific vocabulary#which suggests that data’s language center in his positronic brain always goes through a translation matrix#so english slash federation standard is not data’s ‘native language’ as his native language is raw android information#it’s also suggests something interesting about the weighted priority of english vocabulary in data’s translation matrix though#since he chooses ‘ignite’ instead of ‘burn’ and ‘petroleum’ instead of ‘oil’#’ignite’ instead of ‘burn’ suggests that english words with latinate roots as opposed to germanic roots#seem to be given more weight in the selection process#both ‘oil’ and ‘petroleum’ are latinate words but data’s program has selected the more subjectively formal of the two#uh i just fell down a rabbit hole that looks like the unholy love child of optimality theory and the oxford english dictionary help me#i’m gonna think on this more carry on nothing to see here#tl;dr: data is a computer mylittleredgirl none of this should be shocking yes ok
#i’m sorry you didn’t think you’d get away with those tags staying hidden did you? (via woodface)
KIND OF because I am a linguistics degree dropout and am not sure my linguistics thoughts are body-of-post worthy I mean I don’t even know what Noam Chomsky would have to say about any of this.
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#Star Trek #TNG #yay somebody else who is fond of way overthinking the implications of Star Trek translators! #overthinking is so much fun
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