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C00002 00002	telegr[e82,jmc]		Telegraphic communication in natural language
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telegr[e82,jmc]		Telegraphic communication in natural language

	Computational linguistics at present is based on parsing
and attempts to accomplish parsing with a minimum use of knowledge
about the world in general and the context of the computation.
However, most computational linguist would now agree that parsing
many sentences does require contextual knowledge to disambiguate.
We argue in this note that computational linguistics is working
backwards.  It should concentrate attention on systems with large
amounts of knowledge about the world and particular situations
but which communicate very primitively - perhaps with one word
sentences.  Here are some supporting heuristic arguments.

	A person knows more than he can say; we all find ourselves
struggling for words to express our thoughts.  If there is such a
thing as mentalese, it is quite different from languages that can
be uttered.

	It seems also that in language development as in embryology
ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.

	Thus there is reasonable evidence that the earliest written languages
were not very expressive.  Recently reported archaeological work
shows that the early forms of written Sumerian were only suitable
for expressing inventories.  The "reader" of these inventories
supplied the knowledge necessary for interpreting it.

	We hypothesize that the earliest spoken languages were
similarly inexpressive.  There were some nouns, some expletives,
and some expressions of desire.  However, the users of these
languages were not stupid; they merely hadn't developed the
technology of communication.

	Likewise, children begin with one word sentences,
and there is reasonable evidence that their thoughts are ahead
of their ability to express them.

	We might begin with message protocols like those of the
ARPAnet FTP program.  Here each message has an explicit context.

	Alternatively, we might imagine two communicating programs
that communicate their desires in one and two word sentences of
the human type.  One of them might be more sophisticated than
the other as is the case in communication between babies and others.