woodface
#okay i love that data’s programming doesn’t allow him to store idioms as frozen phrases the way that humans do#which means he must process language as its root semantic meanings not as specific vocabulary#which suggests that data’s language center in his positronic brain always goes through a translation matrix#so english slash federation standard is not data’s ‘native language’ as his native language is raw android information#it’s also suggests something interesting about the weighted priority of english vocabulary in data’s translation matrix though#since he chooses ‘ignite’ instead of ‘burn’ and ‘petroleum’ instead of ‘oil’#’ignite’ instead of ‘burn’ suggests that english words with latinate roots as opposed to germanic roots#seem to be given more weight in the selection process#both ‘oil’ and ‘petroleum’ are latinate words but data’s program has selected the more subjectively formal of the two#uh i just fell down a rabbit hole that looks like the unholy love child of optimality theory and the oxford english dictionary help me#i’m gonna think on this more carry on nothing to see here#tl;dr: data is a computer mylittleredgirl none of this should be shocking yes ok
airyairyquitecontrary
Picard. What the fuck are you doing making that face about what a fucking nerd Data is. You are the biggest fucking nerd in space.
I say lovingly.
