Human Activity Language: Grounding Concepts with a Linguistic Framework

We have empirically discovered that the space of human actions has a linguistic framework. This is a sensory-motor space consisting of the evolution of the joint angles of the human body in movement. The space of human activity has its own phonemes, morphemes, and sentences. This has implications for conceptual grounding. We present a Human Activity Language (HAL) for symbolic non-arbitrary representation of visual and motor information. In phonology, we define atomic segments (kinetemes) that are used to compose human activity. We introduce the concept of a kinetological system and propose five basic properties for such a system: compactness, viewinvariance, reproducibility, selectivity, and reconstructivity. In morphology, we extend sequential language learning to incorporate associative learning with our parallel learning approach. Parallel learning solves the problem of overgeneralization and is effective in identifying the kinetemes and active joints in a particular action. In syntax, we suggest four lexical categories for our Human Activity Language (noun, verb, adjective, and adverb). These categories are combined into sentences through syntax for human movement.