Longfellow's Poems: The Mathematicss Of Languages

The Mathematics of Languages

Hassan Ajami

All languages could be successfully analyzed in terms of mathematical equations. In this sense, language is mathematics. This thesis enables us to explain why languages usually have different word orders, and why any language could be highly flexible.

Different Word Orders and Flexibility

Many scholars, such as Russell Tomlin and Jae Jung Song, discussed the diverse word orders of languages. Yet the fact that many languages have distinct word orders could be explained through discovering

And in fact it is. Whitman says in his poem "Starting from Paumanok": "And a song make I…". Here, "song" is the object, "make" is the verb, and "I" is the subject. Therefore, this poetic verse is formed in light of the equation O+V+S, indicating that this equation is a grammatically correct equation of English language. In addition, since S+V+O constitute a grammatically accurate equation, it mathematically follows that V+S+O is a correct equation as well. One example of forming a statement in accordance with the mathematical and linguistic equation V+S+O is found in Longfellow's poem "The Skeleton in Armor". In this poem, Longfellow says: "Built I the lofty tower". In this verse, "Built" is the verb, "I" is the subject, and "tower" is the object. Here, Longfellow puts the verb at the beginning, followed by the subject and then the object. This indicates that this poetic verse is formed in light of the equation V+S+O. All of this shows that language is mathematics, and it is constructed and used in accordance with mathematical equations. And the fact that the relationship between the subject, verb and object is mathematical in the previous manner explains why any language, such as English, could be flexible in the sense that it could be formed in accordance with the equations S+V+O, O+S+V, O+V+S and

For instance, in his poem "The Skeleton in Armor", he says: "Wild was the life we led". Here, "wild" is the adjective, "was" is the verb, and "life" is the subject. Similarly, in the same poem, he maintains that "Fairest of all was she". In this verse, "Fairest of all" is the adjective, "was" is the verb, and "she" is the subject. And this poetic verse is clearly built in accordance with the equation A+V+S. Other examples are from his poem "The Wreck of the Hesperus", such as his verses: "Blue were her eyes", "Colder and louder blew the wind", and "A frozen corpse was he". From the same perspective, since S+V+A are equal to grammatically accurate statement, it mathematically follows that A+S+V should also be grammatically correct. And in fact it is. For instance, Longfellow states in one of his poetic verses: "Loud then the champion laughed". Here, "Loud" is the adjective, "the champion" is the subject, and "laughed" is the verb. This poetic verse is, obviously, formed in light of the equation A+S+V. All of this reveals that the distinct linguistic structures could be successfully analyzed as mathematical