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~ The Study of Threes ~
http://threesology.org
Researchers as of 12/16/2019
| Embellished Dichotomies Series | |||
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As I begin, let me note that the contents of this series correlates with information set forth in two other papers; one entitled Sociological 3s and the other entitled Language, Hearing, Cognition (of which I am still working on).
An "embellished dichotomy" is a trichotomy (or more), where an underlying dichotomy persists as the main focus and is merely accentuated by adding one or more attributes to it, such as in the case of the Major premise/Minor premise... Conclusion arrangement. The Conclusion is merely an embellishment of the two and does not actually constitute a third and separate entity; but performs the perfunctory role of being an amalgamation of the two, just as one might argue that the two premises are merely embellishments of one another; thus implying that a singularity can be split into two parts which somehow remain attached as mirror-imaging twins that may or may not exhibit slight differences — which become elaborated on by the particular person focusing on them. In the case where a false dichotomy is claimed, this too is an example of Embellishing a dichotomy that another may want to describe as a Hyperbole (Extravagant exaggeration) though the usage of an understatement effect can also be used as a reversed sort of embellishment to that which is being discussed or give attention to something, someone, some place else, such as in the case of setting someone up for an intended failure to disguise another's motive for increasing their manipulative control. While this analogy may seem out of place to some readers, the intent is to describe dichotomization in mirror imaging activities which can take place behaviorally without obvious wording attached. The overall behavior of a duplicitous action describes a duality of occurrence reflecting a mental act of dichotomization which is embellished like a stage set for a theatrical production.
 Left/Right Brain Hemisphere attributes |
This image portrays Roman dicers from a fresco at Pompeii, playing what is thought to be an early version of backgammon. The cartoon-like captions above their heads describe a disputed call: the man on the left cries, "I've won!" while the one on the right objects, claiming, "It's not a three, it's a two." Analogously, the two characters can be viewed as the right & left hemispheres of the brain, with the left hemisphere generally described as the originating point for language-related activities such as mathematics and writing, while the right hemisphere is generally described for non-language attributes such as art and music. An appreciation of this contrast can be found here from different vantage points: L/R Brain Hemisphere Attributes. The right adamantly refuses to acknowledge the left's claim to a 3 and insists that the "3" the left sees is actually a 2. If the overall purpose of the "game" (life) is to achieve a "3" and yet there is a claim from some for a preponderance of "2" (with all its various guises), do we try to change the rules of the "game" or create a teaching methodology which enables the distinctions of "2" and "3" to be made identifiable and useful from all vantage points? (Even if the purpose of the game is defined by Earth-specific environmental circumstances.) The social problems created by an underlying 2 versus 3 contention has been going on for long enough... since Pompeii anyway. Let's not leave a similar picture of us for future historians who find it beneath the rubble of an extinct civilization. |
Let's look at some examples of word doublings as expressed singular ideas, and thus unveil semantic equivalents of numerical indices related to cognitive limitations noted in the development of number usage by primitive peoples, and the reduplicated babblings of infants, along with the pairing in amino acids, twin star systems, doubling of cells in cellular development of an embryo, etc...: In other words, by providing examples of human thinking from different subjects areas which reveal a common underlying theme of basic numerousity (such as in the series 1, 2, 3...), I hope to elucidate the presence of not only describing cognitive limits which must have some detectable environmental influence that we may be able to alter, but how our efforts to progress intellectually uses methods which persuade us to think we have achieved some greater level of thought... but have actually only devised a means to conceal our repetitive usage of basic enumeration. One of these means is to embellish an idea recognized as a pattern-of-two (such as a duality) to give the impression it has been surpassed and we have achieved a third position of thought, when we have actually only created a form or formula of dressing the duality up in some semantic or symbolic garment... mix and match as we need to offer a convincing portrayal thereof... yet we have not progressed because something is binding us to play out a rehearsal of some former intellectual theme over and over and over again.
- "Stand up" is just as silly as "Stand down", since "standing" implies a position of being up.
- "Sit down" and "sit up" are just as silly unless we add the notion that sitting has an alternative 3rd form called slouching.
- "A noisy sound" is sometimes contrasted with the notion of "white noise", as if the electromagnetic spectrum of sound is synonymous with the spectrum of color, yet no one says the other colors have a sound, such as "purple noise" or "yellow noise", etc...
- "A turning wheel rolls" is similar to "rolling wheels", until the idea of stationary is contrasted to the idea of movement called dynamic.
- "The fire is hot." This is valuable when teaching a child unfamiliar with the terms fire and hot.
- "The ice is cold." Again, this too is an elementary teaching expression.
- "Tautological tautologies." This can be expanded into a sentence to read as "Tautological tautologies tautologize tautologically".
- oxymoron: Same idea expressed with different words in the same context but not as a means to provide clarity.
- "A blinding sight/light." Typically, expressions regarding perception are sense-specific. They only become altered by creative thinkers.
- "A deafening noise." A creative thinker mixes and matches themes of reference within the framework of notions sometimes viewed as perceptions disclosed by a neurotic or psychotic ideation. For example, one's sight might be deafened, one's taste may be shattered, one's feelings may become colored, one's sense of smell becomes architectured by an oblivious subtlety, one's ideas become tortured, moods become attached with color, tastes are heard, etc...
- "A smelly odor." It is uncommon (except for creative thinkers) to describe odor with references characteristic of other senses, such as a blinding odor, a weighted odor... though one might say a heavy odor, etc...
- "A thought filled idea." While one would not customarily say something like "a cream-filled" idea, it would be acceptable, even though to say "a thought filled idea" seems rather silly, since ideas are typically thoughts and not (poetically or metaphorically) expressed as shoelaces.
- "Destitute poor." Unless a millionaire describes themselves as being destitute because they are not a billionaire, a poor person is destitute... though being "poor" can be described from different vantage points in a given societal context.
- "Big and tall." While a big person (such as someone fat), need not be tall, a tall person may be described as a big person, unless their weight is used to define them as being thin, skinny, lanky, etc...
- "Redundant superfluity." Rather self-explanatory I should think.
- "Black hole." Unless a hole is very, very, very shallow to permit light to hit its surface, all holes are black in having the depth of darkness by way of no shadows but an enduring shadow being cast all about.
9 Common Phrases Longer Than They Need to Be by Benjamin Smith, MAY 16, 2012: (The page from which the following were culled provides added commentary.)
- Nape of the neck. (neck and nape are synonymous.)
- False pretense.
- Frozen tundra.
- Gnashing of teeth.
- Head honcho.
- Bleary-eyed.
- Veer off course.
- Safe haven.
- Ford a river.
- Prepay in advance. ("Pre" means advanced position.)
- Tired cliché.
- Double-speak (dichotomies otherwise known as lies)... yet we have no triple, quadruple, etc., speak to speak of... and the "single-speak" is taken for granted to the extent it is not even mentioned as an enumerated entity.
- Double blind: (dichotomous experiment) Though one may find references to triple-blind experimentation as well. However, like many intellectual exercises, the quantity of "blinds" is small-numbered... we do not typically find quadruple-blind studies, quintuple-blind studies, etc...
- (Let me mention that different sports frequently use their own vernaculars for specific numbers, with or without the attendant word of "goal". These
vernaculars are embellishments of identified number values. Numbering systems are used in various ways to describe gains, losses, statistics, valuations,
etc., and those numbering systems often include efforts that can be described as embellishments... not only of dichotomies, but other enumerated associations
as well.)
- "Half-time" implies a numerical value, while "1st down", "1st place", "1st in line", etc., all express an embellishment of the number being used.
- The "Hail Mary" football pass is said to be synonymous with the numerical value of the expression "11th hour" and perhaps even the "13" in a baker's dozen as signifying the last effort in a collective effort.
In certain sports, a magic number is a number used to indicate how close a front-running team is to clinching a division title and/or a playoff spot. It represents the total of additional wins by the front-running team or additional losses (or any combination thereof) by the rival teams after which it is mathematically impossible for the rival teams to capture the title in the remaining number of games (assuming some highly unlikely occurrence such as disqualification or expulsion from the competition or retroactive forfeiture of games does not occur). Magic numbers are generally confined to sports where each game results in a win or a loss, but not a tie. It could also be referred to as the "clinching number."
Teams other than the front-running team have what is called an elimination number (or "tragic number") (often abbreviated E#). This number represents the number of wins by the leading team or losses by the trailing team which will eliminate the trailing team. The largest elimination number among the non-first place teams is the magic number for the leading team.
Interestingly, when describing a valuation of multiple items, there is a cognitive limit imposed such as the "top 10", though alternative "ten" placement valuations may be used such as the top 50, top 100, which... when itemized together, reveal a limitation to the values being used by those involved in developing a ranking system. In other words, there are not 14 billion different values being used... only a select few over and over and over again.
The following is an example of numerousity being embellished by an established criteria to formulate the top ten most popular sports.:
An example of an "embellished singularity" using a trichotomous structure is easily seen is the expression of: "Tell the truth- The whole truth- Nothing but the truth", though we might include the child's game expression of "Red rover- Red Rover, Send... (Johnny, Susie, Mary, etc...) right over". Then again, the enumerated expression for carpentry: "measure twice, cut once," is the reversed serration of 2 and 1... with an often unspoken of follow up of this being repeated by memory on other occasions or as a verbalized instructive reminder to those one is working with.
However, because fans often watch from a distance and can not tell specific facial features of a given player, some players, such as those in football, have made an effort to stand out by creating some personalized antic in order to be given "a symbolic face of individuality", and not be just "another number" running about the field, to the extent it is a person's uniform number, like a prison inmate's number which becomes associated with a life of its own. Here is a reference to the situation in football: The hidden numbers in sports expressions.
From the Ordinal (ranked in order) numbering system: 1,2,3,... we eventually find a stopping point at ten being used for many occasions, suggesting a correspondence to the ten fingers and/or toes, which goes along with the idea that the value "2" met with a cognitive stop since body parts such as eyes, ears, arms, etc., were limited to two items, and that in many cases higher values are accomplished by pairing or doubling pairs. Hence, the doubling is suggestive of a cognitive embellishment, just as the five toes and five fingers appear to be a biologically expressed embellishment that we see in radial symmetry, such as a doubling of starfish arms (though there are odd-numbered variations) or the 8 tentacles of octopi. However, the mere doubling of cells in division are a more basic representation of not only embellishment, but elaboration of embellishments where divergence creates differing body structures and functionalities.
In mathematics, just as we find in the limited number of elements, there is a rather small set of number types. In any case, it reveals an expressed limitation to the types of numbers which exist, or a limitation in the imagination of mathematicians:
- Natural Numbers (N), (also called positive integers, counting numbers, or natural numbers); They are the numbers {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...}
- Whole Numbers (W). This is the set of natural numbers, plus zero, i.e., {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...}.
- Integers (Z). This is the set of all whole numbers plus all the negatives (or opposites) of the natural numbers, i.e., {... , ⁻2, ⁻1, 0, 1, 2, ...}
- Rational numbers (Q). This is all the fractions where the top and bottom numbers are integers; e.g., 1/2, 3/4, 7/2, ⁻4/3, 4/1 [Note: The denominator cannot be 0, but the numerator can be].
- Real numbers (R), (also called measuring numbers or measurement numbers). This includes all numbers that can be written as a decimal. This includes fractions written in decimal form e.g., 0.5, 0.75 2.35, ⁻0.073, 0.3333, or 2.142857. It also includes all the irrational numbers such as ℼ, √2 etc. Every real number corresponds to a point on the number line.
Here is another listing (which the reader might say is an embellishment of the first): Wikipedia: List of types of numbers
Clearly, the above types of numbers are linguistic embellishments of numbers and usage thereof. However, since we are dealing with the notion of dichotomization, let us say there are no linguistically specific opposite, except for such instances as Rational/Irrational, Positive/Negative. For example:
- Natural numbers but no Unnatural numbers.
- Whole numbers but no Part numbers.
- Integers but no Outegers or Uptegers/Downtegers... or Insideoutegers.
- Real numbers but no Unreal numbers nor Supernatural numbers, or Otherworldly numbers... etc..., though we do have Imaginary numbers.
- Imaginary numbers but no specifically named Fairy tale, Folklore, Fantasy or Science fiction numbers.
- Complex numbers but no specifically designated Simple numbers... though they are implied.
- Hyper-complex numbers but no Hypo or Meso numbers.
- p-adic numbers (I say p-"attic", meaning top limit), but no p-basment numbers ("basement," meaning bottom limit unless one thinks in terms of a lower dungeon and/or escape tunnel attribute; thus introducing the idea of a tiered formed of limitation which appears to be more conducive to the way in which the human mind conceptualizes... like a chess or checkers game where the three tiers are horizontal- vertical- diagonal).
- Indeed, how come we don't have the concepts of Horizontal, Vertical and Diagonal numbers, as well as ghostly numbers, fruit numbers, cereal numbers, amphibian numbers, spiritual numbers, political numbers, mutating numbers, etc...?
And like the multiplicity of patterns which can only seen by a comparison of other patterns within or outside of a given subject, we find the situation in which to identify "three the same" (amino acids in DNA and RNA: Adenosine- Cytosine- Guanine) and "one is different" (DNA has Thymine and RNA has Uracil); the mirror-imaging effect of the three juxtaposed to the singularities is an overall three-pattern which may suggest to some interpretations that nature itself engages in different models of embellishment, with or without understatements termed mutations, adaptations, etc., not to mention the obvious double-strandedness and pairing of amino acids, though one should look at Crick's (1966) "wobble hypothesis" in terms of a see-saw or swinging effect that is an analogy to the unconscious recognition of a biologically based embellishment activity called redundancy, and from the idea of "degeneracy" used when speaking of the triplet code, we are confronted with the notion that the usage of an acknowledged and unconscious usage of "embellishment" may be a type of linguistic and mental cosmetic or attempted replacement part so as to conceal or camouflage the occurrence of an ongoing disintegration due to the incremental deterioration of the environment that life forms are struggling to adapt to by various forms of behavioral, biological and mental rationalizations.
- Adenosine- Cytosine- Guanine
- Thymine
- Uracil
Examples for how the idea of a degenerate code is expressed (Notice the flip-flopping: "Degenerate Code" / "Code Degeneracy") which may occur with one writer or between multiple writers on the subject, like a flip-flop of the geomagnetic field. Flip-flopping is a technique used in poetry as an attempted means of appearing to provide an original perception, or it may mean that a person's frame of mind during the writing actually does a flip-flop in some instances... though it can occur in other subjects and efforts as well such as in art, music, mathematics, architecture, sports-play strategy, military strategy, etc...
- Degenerate Code: A code in which several code words have the same meaning. The genetic code is degenerate because there are many instances in which different codons specify the same amino acid. A genetic code in which some amino acids may each be encoded by more than one codon.
- Genetic Code There are 64 possible permutations, or combinations, of three-letter nucleotide sequences that can be made from the four nucleotides. Of these 64 codons, 61 represent amino acids, and three are stop signals. Although each codon is specific for only one amino acid (or one stop signal), the genetic code is described as degenerate, or redundant, because a single amino acid may be coded for by more than one codon. It is also important to note that the genetic code does not overlap, meaning that each nucleotide is part of only one codon—a single nucleotide cannot be part of two adjacent codons. Furthermore, the genetic code is nearly universal, with only rare variations reported. For instance, mitochondria have an alternative genetic code with slight variations.
- Codon degeneracy Degeneracy of codons is the redundancy of the genetic code, exhibited as the multiplicity of three-base pair codon combinations that specify an amino acid. The degeneracy of the genetic code is what accounts for the existence of synonymous mutations.
he Wobble Hypothesis, by Francis Crick, states that the 3rd base in an mRNA codon can undergo non-Watson-Crick base pairing with the 1st base of a tRNA anticodon. The mRNA codon’s first 2 bases form Hydrogen bonds with their corresponding bases on the tRNA anticodon in the usual Watson-Crick manner, in that they only form base pairs with complimentary bases. However, the formation of Hydrogen bonds between the 3rd base on the codon and the 1st base on the anticodon can potentially occur in a non-Watson-Crick manner. Therefore different base pairs to those usually seen can form at this position.
Flexible Base Pairing at the 3rd Position of the "codon-anticodon duplex":
- If A is at the 3rd position in the codon it can base pair with U or I, if either of these is present at the 1st position in the anticodon.
- If U is at the 3rd position in the codon it can base pair with A, G or I, if either of these is present at the 1st position in the anticodon.
- If G is at the 3rd position in the codon it can base pair with C or U, if either of these is present at the 1st position in the anticodon.
- If C is at the 3rd position in the codon it can base pair with G or I, if either of these is present at the 1st position in the anticodon. [5]
"I" is the nucleoside Inosine that is formed in tRNA by the removal of an amino group from adenosine. A process that is carried out by an enzyme called anticodon deaminase.
In the genetic code, there are 43 = 64 possible codons (tri-nucleotide sequences). For translation, each of these codons requires a tRNA molecule with a complementary anticodon. If each tRNA molecule is paired with its complementary mRNA codon using canonical Watson-Crick base pairing, then 64 types (species) of tRNA molecule would be required. In the standard genetic code, three of these 64 mRNA codons (UAA, UAG and UGA) are stop codons. These terminate translation by binding to release factors rather than tRNA molecules, so canonical pairing would require 61 species of tRNA. Since most organisms have fewer than 45 species of tRNA,[3] some tRNA species must pair with more than one codon. In 1966, Francis Crick proposed the Wobble Hypothesis to account for this. He postulated that the 5' base on the anticodon, which binds to the 3' base on the mRNA, was not as spatially confined as the other two bases, and could, thus, have non-standard base pairing. Crick creatively named it for the small amount of play that occurs at this third codon position. Movement ("wobble") of the base in the 5' anticodon position is necessary for small conformational adjustments that affect the overall pairing geometry of anticodons of tRNA.
And yet this pattern might well be construed as an embellishment, such as interpreting DNA as an embellishment of RNA in evolutionary terms, or that the three amino acids are used to embellish the presence of the other two singularities which become doubled by way of interacting together. Then again, the repetition of a triplet code in a basic formula of evolution which does not itself evolve beyond the "three", like some primitive person's expressed "many" in a three-word counting system (one- two... Many/Much/More... and some people today make use of in the sense of using the words "some/few/a lot"); the idea of an occurring "embellishment" can have a strict or "embellished" definition itself. Take for example the word "Combo-meal" referring to a meal that is a combination of (usually 3 items provided by a fast food service). The word "combination" does not have to refer to three items, but at the very least two. The three items for one meal can be said to act as an expressed embellishment. One item embellishes another one like using some condiment (catsup, mayonnaise, muster, relish, etc...) to embellish a sandwich, or by adding spices to a dish or mixing a drink with water, ice, alcohol, sugar, honey, etc... Food is not the only think that we embellish. While we may view an activity as being quite serious and label it with a lofted intention such as "mathematics", "science", "sacred", "law", etc., these terms are embellishments which may themselves have embellishments in one or another form analogous to a cosmetic, laugher, dress code, name tag/ insignia, pass, passport, license, "official" stamp, etc...
While it is clear the usage of the three above stated forms of "truth" related to a legal setting are rather silly, and one would think that the intelligence suggested (embellished) by legal minds could rise above this childish display, we find this one example is not alone. For example, there is the "cease and desist" comment which means the same and therefore expresses an embellishment, or if you prefer, a type of infantile babbling. Here are some other examples of what are sometimes referred to as Pleonasms, where we find an acknowledge usage of doubles and triples, but the notion of singularity, quadrupling, etc., may never come to mind, either because humans don't typically think in terms of "embellished singularities" or are expressing an unrecognized repetition of a cognitive limitation in going beyond the "three":
A legal doublet is a standardized phrase used frequently in English legal language consisting of two or more words that are near synonyms. The origin of the doubling—and sometimes even tripling—often lies in the transition from use of one language for legal purposes to use of another for the same purposes, as from a Germanic ([Anglo-]Saxon or Old English) term to a Romance (Latin or Law French) term or, within the Romance subfamily, from a Latin term to a Law French term. To ensure understanding, words of Germanic origin were often paired with words having equivalent or near-equivalent meanings in Latin (reflecting the interactions between Germanic and Roman law following the decline of the Roman Empire) or, later, Law French (reflecting the influence of the Norman Conquest), and words of Latin origin were often paired with their Law French cognates or outright descendants. Such phrases can often be Pleonasms and Siamese twins. In other cases, the two components did not arise through such synonym annotation but rather referred to two differentiable ideas whose differentiation is subtle, appreciable only to lawyers, long since obsolete, or a combination of those. For example, ways and means, referring to methods and resources respectively, are differentiable, in the same way that tools and materials, or equipment and funds, are differentiable—but the difference between them is often practically irrelevant to the contexts in which the Siamese twin ways and means is used today in non-legal contexts as a mere cliché where one word would do (for example, "methods"), and because each of the words can practically mean "methods", the second can seem redundant in the clichéd, non-legal instances.
With respect to the idea of "Siamese twins" in linguistics, looking at this idea in terms of related languages as a doubling or embellished dichotomization (and in some instances, more than one language), may be of some interest to readers. Take for example the extracted comment:
...Take the Slavics: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are a Siamese quartet of languages, with Slovenian, another of former Yugoslavia's languages, extremely close. Slovakian is halfway between Czech and Croatian. Macedonian is almost indistinguishable from Bulgarian. Belarusian is pretty near to Ukrainian. Russia stands a bit apart: is closest to Bulgarian, but quite far from Polish.... A Map of Lexical Distances Between Europe's Languages by Frank Jacobs, 07 March, 2017
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(Sent to me by a colleague...)
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Here's another list of legal ones, twos and threes mixed together which remind me of the doublets and triplet formulas of infant babbling:
Commonly used legal word strings (doublets and triplets) that essentially have one meaning include (cited in Dick 1985: 126–127) and in Cao (2007: 89-90):
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There may be a lack of the exact corresponding synonyms in the Triple List. A legal consideration is that in law, sometimes each and every word may carry different legal meanings and legal consequences. When disputes arise, courts may be asked to interpret each such individual word, and give them different meanings. Thus, for the translator, it is not always possible or advisable to combine the synonyms into one word (Cao, 2007). Bibliography
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See Also: Word Triplets in the English Language
Origination date: Monday, December 2nd, 2019... 5:47 AM
Initial Posting: Monday, December 16th, 2019... 12:34 PM
Updated Postein: Tuesday, January 5th, 2021... 6:27 AM
Herb O. Buckland
herbobuckland@hotmail.com