# Living Language — Proximal Frequency Research Reference **Domain:** Computational Linguistics / Distributional Semantics / Computational Creativity **Doc Type:** Project Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Distributional Semantics|Distributional Semantics]], [[wiki/Trigger-Based Language Modeling|Trigger-Based Language Modeling]], [[wiki/Synset vs Concept Set|Synset vs Concept Set]], [[wiki/Semantic-First Constrained Generation|Semantic-First Constrained Generation]], [[wiki/Poet's Muse|Poet's Muse]] --- ## Definition **Living Language: Proximal Frequency Research Reference was Bryant McGill's project for treating corpus-derived lexical association as a traversable structure of conceptual movement.** ## Proximal Frequency Model The project combined global occurrence, local occurrence and degree of proximity. Global frequency supplied a background rate, local frequency identified concentration within the current neighborhood and proximity measured how tightly terms appeared together. This weighting distinguished ubiquitous weak relations from rarer but sharply localized ones. Trigger pairs from conversational and broadcast material became paths through a semantic environment rather than remaining hidden adjustments inside a predictive model. ## Concept Sets Living Language distinguished a [[wiki/Synset vs Concept Set|concept set]] from a WordNet synset. A concept set was recovered from use and could contain thematic, cultural or affective neighbors rather than only lexical equivalents. Intersections among several primary concepts supplied a possible trajectory for writing. ## Generation Context The associative layer was intended to lead [[wiki/Semantic-First Constrained Generation|semantic-first generation]]. It supplied where the thought might go before formal grammar, rhyme, meter and surface checking constrained how it could be expressed. ## Key Insight **Language association becomes a generative medium when probability is exposed as a path the author and machine can traverse.** ## See Also [[wiki/Distributional Semantics|Distributional Semantics]], [[wiki/Trigger-Based Language Modeling|Trigger-Based Language Modeling]], [[wiki/Switchboard Corpus|Switchboard Corpus]], [[wiki/Broadcast News Corpus|Broadcast News Corpus]], [[wiki/Synset vs Concept Set|Synset vs Concept Set]], [[wiki/Poet's Muse|Poet's Muse]] ## Sources / Provenance - Surviving trigger data, project filenames and reconstruction in [[projects/Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine|Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine]].