Songs without Words

I am going to finalize things .. for the beta version, anyway:

Updated relationships: I have decided that the old scaling system was insufficient. After thinking about it a long time (um, during my shower a few minutes ago ..), I have decided to use the following temporary scheme. The value of the number is no longer important – it is just a designation.

A,B,0: A is (equal to) B. Example: 3 is three. Amelioration is improvement. *These are very few and far between. The only use of this is for absolute synonyms. Note that thesauruses actually include many not-absolute synonyms (which is actually why I am reluctant to use them).

A,B,1: A is like B. A,B,-1: A is like B. Note that the positive and negative forms are the same: this is because “to be like” is a reciprocal property.

Example: Smiling is like grinning. Eating is like consuming. Pens are like pencils.

Now the question is: how so? The similarities will be basically summarized as being the common connections. For instance, both pens and pencils will have a -2 connection to writing_utensils (see below).

A,B,2: A is a superset of B. A,B,-2: A is a subset of B.

Example (2): Animals include bears. Computers include desktops and laptops.

Example (-2): A bear is a kind of animal. A desktop is a type of computer.

A,B,3: A can do/make B. A,B,-3: A can be done by, achieved through B.

Example (3): Cameras can make photographs. Cars can do transportation.

Example (-3): Writing can be done by/with a pencil.

A,B,4: A has the objective property of B. A,B-4: B is an objective property of A.

A,B,4.5: A has the subjective property of/is sometimes B. A,B,-4.5: reverse

A,B,5: *important* A causes B. A,B-5: A is caused by B.

Example (5): Heating causes melting. The moon causes tides. Fossil_fuels cause pollution.

Example (-5): Panic is caused by disaster.

A,B,10: A is somehow related to B. -10 is the same. This expresses a relationship whose quality is unknown.

An additional field will be made: preferred expression of relation.

I will probably *not* be adding the additional factor of “to what degree” these relations are held. The distance (confidence) will take care of that in the few times that it is important (mostly with the A is like B scenario).

Okay, this is the last post before I actually make the dang thing.