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I think ...
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This part is pretty easy. Thinking is traditionally depicted in
cartoons by using thought bubbles. Then add the
grammatical element of the first person (pointing to
the speaker). |
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... the monkeys ... |
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A simple depiction of a monkey along with grammatical
glyphs for [plural] and [definite article] |
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... at ... |
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= @, obviously. |
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... the zoo ... |
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The English word zoo is short for zoological garden. The
German Tiergarten (animal garden) is more concise than the full English and more
descriptive than the short English, but it basically means the same thing.
I've taken the glyph for [animal] from Orwell's
Animal Farm.
[Garden] can be illustrated with a picket fence. It's probably woth noting
that, in English, garden and yard came originally from the same word, so the
picket fence glyph can do double duty here. |
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... should have to ... |
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The exclamation point by itself often indicates a command or imperative.
Eventually, we'll have to figure out a way of separating all the subtle
differences between
monkeys have to, monkeys should, and monkeys should have to;
but until then, we'll use this single symbol as a place holder. |
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... wear ... |
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My first line of thought went like this: In Latin, the words for wear
and carry are the same. The English
wear seems to come from the same Indo-Euro. root as the Latin vestis,
a covering. Maybe we could construct "wear" from the glyphs
for [cover][carry].
But then I just went with [button][shirt]. |
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... sunglasses ... |
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This is a tough one because it's too easy. Both elements of the English
compound sun glasses are easily depicted with common symbols. At the
same time, sunglasses themselves are often used on Internet
to symbolize cool. It seems kind of silly to meticulously construct a
compound when we already have a single glyph, but then, the glyph alone is a
metaphor, not an icon. Let's use all three in formal writing. |
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... so ... |
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I hope that eventually I can come up with better symbols for this, but for
the time being, I'll use a compound of the standard logical symbols for
[therefore][then] to say that the first part leads to the second. |
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... can't ... |
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In
symbolic logic, there's already a way of indicating
not possible. |
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... they ... hypnotize ... |
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The word hypnotize originated with the Greek word for sleep.
Sleeping in cartoons is depicted by a floating
stream of Zs. In order to distinguish hypnosis from other varieties of sleep,
we'll add the spiral which cartoonists place in the eyes when depicting a
hypnotized person. To this, we'll add the plural 3rd person ([eye] = the
person seen). |
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... you. |
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The stand-alone symbol of you -- two glyphs indicating [this][you] |
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I see ...
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Pretty obvious. |
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... some ... |
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This comes from
symbolic
logic. |
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... really ... |
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This word, like most of its English synonyms (truly, verily), is
the adverbial form of a word meaning true. Thus, we'll construct it as
[true]+[like]. |
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... stupid ... |
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There are, of course, plenty of words for reduced mental ability that lend
themselves to easy illustration: bonehead, fool, clown...
... but the actual word stupid isn't one of them. It's too
abstract. It comes from the Latin stupor, and it originally meant
stunned, dazed or senseless. The cartoons illustrate
a dazed state with stars and birds orbiting the head. Let's approximate that. |
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... children ... |
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To depict children (i.e children/offspring, as opposed to
children/juveniles), we can use a family tree
whittled down to just the basics. |
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... being born ... |
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Your basic greeting card and party supplies illustration, combined with
geneological shorthand for born. |
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... as a result of ... |
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For the time being, I'm translating this as [because][if] |
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... these two ... |
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Constructed from [this]+[two]+[plural]. |
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... meeting. |
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It was tempting at first to use [handshake] by itself as the glyph for meet,
but [handshake] could also be interpreted as partner, agree or
friend. Adding the glyph for [welcome] should clarify the meaning. |
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