Ogden's Basic English — 850 Word Foundation¶

Overview¶

C.K. Ogden's Basic English (1930) reduces the English language to 850 essential words sufficient for international communication. In RTSG, this word set serves as the linguistic kernel — the minimal basis for the Linguistic dimension (\(d_L\)) of the K-Matrix.

These 850 words form a complete basis in the sense that any English sentence can be rephrased using only these words plus domain-specific nouns. This is analogous to how a vector space is spanned by its basis vectors — Ogden found the basis of English.

Connection to RTSG¶

Word Categories¶

Ogden organized the 850 words into functional classes:

Alphabetical Index¶

A¶

a, able, about, account, acid, across, act, addition, adjustment, advertisement, after, again, against, agreement, air, all, almost, among, amount, amusement, and, angle, angry, animal, answer, ant, any, apparatus, apple, approval, arch, argument, arm, army, art, as, at, attack, attempt, attention, attraction, authority, automatic, awake

B¶

baby, back, bad, bag, balance, ball, band, base, basin, basket, bath, be (are), beautiful, because, bed, bee, before, behavior, belief, bell, bent, berry, between, bird, birth, bit, bite, bitter, black, blade, blood, blow, blue, board, boat, body, boiling, bone, book, boot, bottle, box, boy, brain, brake, branch, brass, bread, breath, brick, bridge, bright, broken, brother, brown, brush, bucket, building, bulb, burn, burst, business, but, butter, button, by

C¶

cake, camera, canvas, card, care, carriage, cart, cat, cause, certain, chain, chalk, chance, change, cheap, cheese, chemical, chest, chief, chin, church, circle, clean, clear, clock, cloth, cloud, coal, coat, cold, collar, color, comb, come, comfort, committee, common, company, comparison, complete, competition, complex, condition, connection, conscious, control, cook, copper, copy, cord, cork, cotton, cough, country, cover, cow, crack, credit, crime, cruel, crush, cry, cup, current, curtain, curve, cushion, cut

D¶

damage, danger, dark, daughter, day, dead, dear, death, debt, decision, deep, degree, delicate, dependent, design, desire, destruction, detail, development, different, digestion, direction, dirty, discovery, discussion, disease, disgust, distance, distribution, division, do, dog, door, doubt, down, drain, drawer, dress, drink, driving, drop, dry, dust

E¶

ear, early, earth, east, edge, education, effect, egg, elastic, electric, end, engine, enough, equal, error, even, event, ever, every, example, exchange, existence, expansion, experience, expert, eye

F¶

face, fact, fall, false, family, far, farm, fat, father, fear, feather, feeble, feeling, female, fertile, fiction, field, fight, finger, fire, first, fish, fixed, flag, flame, flat, flight, floor, flower, fly, fold, food, foolish, foot, for, force, fork, form, forward, fowl, frame, free, frequent, friend, from, front, fruit, full, future

G¶

garden, general, get, girl, give, glass, glove, go, goat, gold, good, government, grain, grass, great, green, grey/gray, grip, group, growth, guide, gun

H¶

hair, hammer, hand, hanging, happy, harbor, hard, harmony, hat, hate, have, he, head, healthy, hearing, heart, heat, help, here, high, history, hole, hollow, hook, hope, horn, horse, hospital, hour, house, how, humor

I¶

I, ice, idea, if, ill, important, impulse, in, increase, industry, ink, insect, instrument, insurance, interest, invention, iron, island

J¶

jelly, jewel, join, journey, judge, jump

K¶

keep, kettle, key, kick, kind, kiss, knee, knife, knot, knowledge

L¶

land, language, last, late, laugh, law, lead, leaf, learning, leather, left, leg, let, letter, level, library, lift, light, like, limit, line, linen, lip, liquid, list, little (less, least), living, lock, long, look, loose, loss, loud, love, low

M¶

machine, make, male, man, manager, map, mark, market, married, match, material, mass, may, meal, measure, meat, medical, meeting, memory, metal, middle, military, milk, mind, mine, minute, mist, mixed, money, monkey, month, moon, morning, mother, motion, mountain, mouth, move, much (more, most), muscle, music

N¶

nail, name, narrow, nation, natural, near, necessary, neck, need, needle, nerve, net, new, news, night, no, noise, normal, north, nose, not, note, now, number, nut

O¶

observation, of, off, offer, office, oil, old, on, only, open, operation, opinion, opposite, or, orange, order, organization, ornament, other, out, oven, over, owner

P¶

page, pain, paint, paper, parallel, parcel, part, past, paste, payment, peace, pen, pencil, person, physical, picture, pig, pin, pipe, place, plane, plant, plate, play, please, pleasure, plough/plow, pocket, point, poison, polish, political, poor, porter, position, possible, pot, potato, powder, power, present, price, print, prison, private, probable, process, produce, profit, property, prose, protest, public, pull, pump, punishment, purpose, push, put

Q¶

quality, question, quick, quiet, quite

R¶

rail, rain, range, rat, rate, ray, reaction, reading, ready, reason, receipt, record, red, regret, regular, relation, religion, representative, request, respect, responsible, rest, reward, rhythm, rice, right, ring, river, road, rod, roll, roof, room, root, rough, round, rub, rule, run

S¶

sad, safe, sail, salt, same, sand, say, scale, school, science, scissors, screw, sea, seat, second, secret, secretary, see, seed, selection, self, send, seem, sense, separate, serious, servant, sex, shade, shake, shame, sharp, sheep, shelf, ship, shirt, shock, shoe, short, shut, side, sign, silk, silver, simple, sister, size, skin, skirt, sky, sleep, slip, slope, slow, small, smash, smell, smile, smoke, smooth, snake, sneeze, snow, so, soap, society, sock, soft, solid, some, son, song, sort, sound, south, soup, space, spade, special, sponge, spoon, spring, square, stamp, stage, star, start, statement, station, steam, stem, steel, step, stick, sticky, still, stitch, stocking, stomach, stone, stop, store, story, strange, street, stretch, stiff, straight, strong, structure, substance, such, sudden, sugar, suggestion, summer, sun, support, surprise, sweet, swim, system

T¶

table, tail, take, talk, tall, taste, tax, teaching, tendency, test, than, that, the, then, theory, there, thick, thin, thing, this, though, thought, thread, throat, through, thumb, thunder, ticket, tight, till, time, tin, tired, to, toe, together, tomorrow, tongue, tooth, top, touch, town, trade, train, transport, tray, tree, trick, trouble, trousers, true, turn, twist

U¶

umbrella, under, unit, up, use

V¶

value, verse, very, vessel, view, violent, voice

W¶

waiting, walk, wall, war, warm, wash, waste, watch, water, wave, wax, way, weather, week, weight, well, west, wet, wheel, when, where, while, whip, whistle, white, who, why, wide, will, wind, window, wine, wing, winter, wire, wise, with, woman, wood, wool, word, work, worm, wound, writing, wrong

X, Y, Z¶

year, yellow, yes, yesterday, you, young

RTSG Syntax Extension¶

Ogden's 850 provides the lexical substrate. RTSG extends this with a logical syntax layer inspired by Lojban and formal logic:

Logical Connectives¶

Dimensional Tags¶

Every Ogden word can be tagged with its primary Gardner dimension:

Sentence Structure¶

RTSG logical syntax follows Subject–Relation–Object with explicit typing:

[dimension] subject —relation→ object

Examples using only Ogden words:

[M] number —is_a→ idea
[S] circle —part_of→ form
[N] seed —produces→ plant
[B] foot —enables→ walk
[ι] mind —contains→ thought
[μ] rhythm —relates_to→ music

Filter Notation¶

Applying a Grothendieck filter to the Ogden basis:

F_spatial(850) = {place, distance, direction, position, angle, ...}  (~60 words)
F_logical(850) = {number, addition, equal, measure, ...}             (~45 words)
neg(F_spatial) = 850 \ F_spatial(850)                                (~790 words)

The negative space of each dimensional filter contains the words that dimension cannot see — its topological silence.

Statistics¶

The dimensional distribution mirrors the knowledge graph's topology: Spatial and Logical-Mathematical dominate, Musical/Interpersonal/Intrapersonal are sparse — the same 3 holes appear in the lexical substrate.

References¶

• Ogden, C.K. (1930). Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar. London: Kegan Paul.
• ogden.basic-english.org

See Also¶

• Lojban — Inter-Agent Protocol Language
• K-Matrix — Intelligence Dimensions
• Definitions
• Language As CS