Re: VMs: split words

[Pierre Abbat <phma@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Friday 03 September 2004 08:29, Marke Fincher wrote:
> I've done a little experiment around the idea of split-words,
> or that some of the spaces in the VMs are misdirectional.
>
> For each unique five letter string that occurs within words
> (there are 8400), I've looked to see if that same sequence
> appears elsewhere but with a space inserted.  It turns out
> that in 3000 (36%) a split-sequence does occur.  In many
> cases the same 5 char sequence is split in 3 or even 4
> different ways (a few examples are shown at the end).
>
> This is interesting, and I feel gives more weight to the
> hoax argument than to the natural language argument.
>
> Take a five char sequence from above 'natur';  You wouldn't
> expect to also find all of 'n atur' 'na tur' 'nat ur' and
> 'natu r' occurring in the same text.  I understand there may
> be more opportunity for this to happen in other languages,
> but 3000 out of 8400 still seems high.
>
> I'd be interested in what the language experts take on this
> is...

Als ik die wolken na tuur beleeft zij zo een nat uur in de natuur. The notable 
surgeon was not able to operate because he had no table.

I think it's partly strings that occur split across word boundaries, and 
partly spacing variations in the handwriting.

phma
-- 
li fi'u vu'u fi'u fi'u du li pa
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