MATHEMATICS AS AN EXACT AND PRECISE LANGUAGE OF NATURE

In the same manner, mathematics being a precise and exact language of
nature - may allow us to cook up new ” realities”. Imagine new mathematics
- which is part this and part that, leave an axiom here, add a lemma there,
bring in some geometry and add some algebra etc. Do I have a consistent
mathematical framework? I may make mistakes as discussed above, but
then these would be corrected in due course of time. However, the fact that
the known mathematics on the basis of which I am trying to go beyond,
does have consistency, hence my new mathematics should have consistency
too. If not then we abandon it. Since different known mathematical sub-
disciplines are related to each other, hence this new mathematics may have
similar consistency and inter-relationships. I may call my new structure as
’’pure” mathematics. However, this would be ’’gibberish” mathematics as we
discussed earlier. It is nevertheless possible that in future the same structure
may find applications in the description of nature. Hence the Platonic world
of mathematics would be no more real than the Platonic world we discussed
in the social context above.

Phonologists have shown that phonemes in individual language families
are quite different. This is so because as we grow up we acquire certain
pronunciation habits that are determined by the sound patterns permitted
in a particular language ( Hjelmslev (1970) ).

An anecdote would not be out of order. A British Scientist was in Japan
to attend an International Conference. During a session, a young Japanese
student gave a presentation of his work. The transparencies were written in
English. After the oral presentation, a senior Japanese scientist, sitting next
to him, turned to him and said, ” He is working under me. What do you
think of the work?”. The British replied. ” I don’t really know. I would
have understood it better had he spoken in English.” To which the Senior
Japanese replied, ” But he was speaking in English ! ”.

So though a written language may be ’’read” by anyone in principle,
the spoken language demands proper pronunciation which too identifies a
language. As Roman Jakobson has said ( Jakobson and Halle ( 1956 ) ),

” As regards the combination of linguistic elements there exists an increas-
ing degree of freedom. But when dealing with the combination of distinctive
features to phonemes, freedom does not exist for the individual speaker - the
code has already established all the possibilities that can be realized in the
given language. ”

As we have stated here, in terms of the appropriate applied mathematics,

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