| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 717.1 | contest clarification? | GLIVET::RECKARD | Jon Reckard, 381-0878, ZKO3-2/T63 | Fri Sep 01 1989 20:50 | 34 |
| Here's the contest originator's attempt at clarification. I still don't see
how "Bah bah bah, bah Barbara Ann" won't do.
From: ABYSS::"binder@caliph.zk3.dec.com" 1-SEP-1989 09:25:09.44
There have been some questions about what constitutes a recursive lyric.
This message should clarify the definition and make it easier for
contestants to decide what is, or is not, a valid entry in my contest.
Recursion is not repetition, at least not in the usual sense. Here
again is the sample I gave:
Every time I see your picture I cry,
And learn to get over you one more time,
Because every time I see your picture I cry,
Oh, I cry.
This lyric is recursive because the first two lines depend on the last
two lines to complete their thought. This language is analogous to
what happens when a recursive software routine calls itself to effect
the complete execution of a function.
The most famous example of recursive language is this old one:
an artist painting a picture of
an artist painting a picture of
an artist...
This example is of course also a demonstration of infinite recursion.
Hope this helps.
-d
|
| 717.2 | Knots | MARVIN::WALSH | The Other Stubbs Effect | Fri Sep 01 1989 22:12 | 2 |
| Try "Knots" by the recently deceased R.D. Laing. I really don't have
the patience to reproduce it here. Look it up.
|
| 717.3 | | COOKIE::DEVINE | Bob Devine, CXN | Fri Sep 01 1989 23:05 | 8 |
| What about that masterpiece of modern existentialism by
KC and the Sunshine Band (Don Knuth mentioned this song
as an example of how to minimally encode a song!).
The song is a (seeminly) endless repetition of the line:
"That's the way uh huh uh huh I like it"
After a while it *does* seem recursive.
|
| 717.4 | clarificationclarificationclarification | GLIVET::RECKARD | Jon Reckard, 381-0878, ZKO3-2/T63 | Sat Sep 02 1989 01:06 | 7 |
| Just to reiterate - if you want to enter this "contest", send mail to the
address which is hinted at in the base note. I say "hinted at" because the
contest is *not* being staged in JOYOFLEX but by the person whose address is
hinted at in the base note, which is not where this contest is being staged,
because the person, whose address is hinted at in the base note, is doing that,
so send your contest entries there, not here, because here is *not* where the
contest is being staged, in case you want to send in your entry, but I reiterate
|
| 717.5 | Meaning? | MARVIN::KNOWLES | Running old protocol | Tue Sep 05 1989 19:01 | 13 |
| Dick Binder's example is recursive only if you pay it the compliment
of interpreting `because' as meaning `because'.
The two syllables of `be-cause' in that context are simply a metrical
filler. It seems to me that the word hasn't even the most banal of
meanings; the verse may suggest a sentiment of some kind (as so much
cheap drivel does), but it is left as an exercise for the listener to
decide what that is. I don't believe that the word has any meaning in the
sense of having any bearing on the interrelation of other words in the
same utterance (note my intentional avoidance of the word `sentence').
b
|
| 717.6 | not recursive, then | MARVIN::MACHIN | | Tue Sep 19 1989 19:46 | 8 |
| It's not recursive if it's an explanation of why the speaker's crying
now, while looking at the addressee's picture (a very expensive
Cubist work, perhaps).
In this case, the 'because' works o.k. Let's hope that, once the
speaker's 'over it', the picture is kept well out of his or her way.
Richard.
|