Blog Post · VOS Overview
VOS Overview ^
Posted On Monday 16 August 2010 by Freddie Nash (FredFace)
Hello everyone,
This is a joint post by Murray and me as an overview of VOS.
For starters, we think VOS is fun. The most recent version is 0.9, which can be found here: VOS 0.9 Docs. Note that VOS is infact an acronym for Verb Object Subject - the basic word order that defines the structure of any sentence written in VOS on any level.
VOS has been shown to work. Perfectly. In every case we have considered (we've spent alot of time when we should be sleeping verifying the grammar, it seems solid (thanks to Sh4rk for intense unbias scrutiny)). English, on the other hand, makes no sense, and should be illegal (thankfully it isn't yet else we souldn't be able to spread VOS effectivly).
The ambiguity in English (and many other langauges) is terrifying, and please note the differnce between 'ambiguity' and 'abstraction' - it is a BIG and IMPORTANT differnce.
This is ambiguous:
> I'm going to the bank
Bank could be a river bank, and bank (stash) of something, or a Bank (eg. the building). If we assume this means the store of something (eg. a Box Bank) then this is NOT ambiguous:
> I put the item in the bank
It is abstract, because bank encompasses selection of similar items.
Oen of the worst crime commited by the English language is the torment of having different endings for different words which have the same effect. For example, with plurals:
Cats - Pretty much standard, OK
Sheep - Ambiguous - Not OK
Mice - Complete restructure - Not OK
In VOS, plurals are indicated in one way only, with the prefix 'soh':
sohcute
sohcip
This is the same in Hungarian, though this is merely coincidence.
The most important thing to learn about VOS is LFP (Lisp For People). We recommened reading through Expantion.txt in the VOS 0.9 docs if you are strugling to figure this out - it may seem weird at first, but it is infact perfect.
The LFP Examiner will help you check your VOS skills, and acts as a translator. LFP could technically be turned to make SVO (almost making sense English word order) work with some minor additions.
If you think that having pre-set prefixes etc. makes VOS open to error, you are right! We just verify everything using the VWV - its quick, easy, and is the only way to make the language work properly without any performance hit.
We hope you atleast consider the chance to learn VOS, or atleast the grammar structure - we've learned alot from making it, and it is really easy to learn - probably because it is so simple.
A VOS 'dictionary' can be found here: VOSLookup
This is the only place where any record of current VOS words is maintained, and any software we provide which appears to contain a long list of words is probably just downloading this.
Some things (like Boolean operators) can be found in 'Vocab.txt' in the docs - anything in there is either special, or being considered for value - chances are it will be kept, unless we comment that it may die (be removed).
There is a good chance that we will create a Language category, just for people to discuss the horror that is modern English, and the poor usage of it.
iqelet hilf sui