Found some word oddities
I was combing through the vocabulary in the most recent update and found some little bugs with default derived words, double words, and a few small formatting errors in the LaTeX dictionary. I recorded all the instances I found in a .txt file, which I'll email over instead of dumping everything into a Reddit post.
Some words seemed like they should be related but were generated separately. Some, like luri /luˈri/ v. perceive and liltzo /liltˈzo/ n. perception, seemed pretty straightforward in whether or not they should be related, but others, like idi /iˈdi/ n. memoir, kashou /kaˈʃou/ n. memory (derived from kasho /kaˈʃo/ v. remember), and lichi /litˈʃi/ n. memorial, seemed like they maybe should be related, but not necessarily? I recorded both types, but assumed there might be reasons for some words being unrelated that I wasn't seeing.
A few types of doubled words. Some were just two isolated generated words for the same translation (naba /naˈba/ n. triangle and nodo /noˈdo/ n. triangle, both unrelated to any other words). Some were an isolated word and a word with multiple definitions (eke /eˈke/ adj. white, blank and purtza /purtˈza/ adj. blank), some were a derived word and an isolated word, (enoaak /eˈnoaˌak/ adj. proud, derived from enoa /eˈnoa/ n. pride, as well as urko /urˈko/ adj. proud, which was isolated), and a few were two different derived words with the same definition (ikishoak /iˈkiʃoˌak/ adj. risky, dangerous, derived from ikisho /iˈkiʃo/ n. risk, and miskuak /misˈkuak/ adj. dangerous, derived from misku /misˈku/ n. danger). I assumed some of the duplicates might be intentional (as in the 'dangerous' example), but I took note of all doubles regardless.
Other miscellaneous issues included:
For both lirn /lirn/ v. be (condition, state) and shono /ʃoˈno/ n. counter (flat, elevated surface), the definition splits over the comma in the LaTeX dictionary, leading to this:
\ce {shono}{/ʃoˈno/}{\p n \et counter (flat, elevated surface)}
\ee {counter (flat}{}{\p n \ct shono}
\ee {elevated surface)}{}{\p n \ct shono}
I:pron has its own section in the LaTeX dictionary, I assume because it's capitalized? It's easy to manually merge it with the rest of the I words, though:
\section*{I}
\begin{multicols}{3}
\ee {I}{}{\p pron \ct a}
\end{multicols}
\needspace{20\baselineskip}
\section*{I}
\begin{multicols}{3}
\ee {ice}{}{\p n \ct vodu}
And sameba /saˈmeba/ n. examine being a noun instead of a verb.
I'll email the .txt file, as well as the settings file+seed number for the language I was looking through. I'm using the Pro version of 9.0.1, no added words- I'd had added words but when I started seeing duplicate words, I turned added words off and regenerated the same language without them to check if the duplicates were on my end.
Posted May 20, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC
From my understanding, the generator uses the derivational morphology rules sometimes, but doesn't create comprehensive networks of related words. Which makes sense, because not every language's etymology is going to match English. You might think "memorial" and "memory" should be related, but definition alone doesn't guarantee an etymological link. For instance, compare cenotaph, monument, dedication, shrine. All synonyms, all unrelated.
Yes, this.
On the double up words... Two "triangles" is a legit mistake. I'll fix that one. But the other ones aren't mistakes, as this is an attempt give the language various synonyms. Like how "thong" and "g-string" refer to the exact same thing. Or how "woods" and "forest" are pretty much the exact same thing.
Properly simulating randomly generated vocab is a big beast. I actually think this needs a lot more work, and if anything there should be more scope for these dervied words to occassionally not be derived words.
With that said, thank you for the email! I will actually probably impliment most of these as straight-up derived words, until which time I can tweak the algorithm to also allow more zaniness.