In the traditional understanding, people believe that things or patterns exist independently of human language, and that things or patterns still exist even without human language. Therefore, when studying the problem of pattern recognition, the direction of research is mainly to find the essential characteristics of things or patterns outside of language.
In overlay theory, we hold that we cannot speak without words. Without words, we cannot say that things or patterns exist. We believe that a pattern is necessarily a pattern expressed in words. Therefore, in the theory of coverage, our research direction is not to look for the essential characteristics of things or patterns outside of language, but to clarify the following three questions:
For example, when studying the question of what is an apple, we do not want to study what the apple is that objectively exists outside of language, not to distinguish the essential characteristics of the apple from other things outside of language, but to make it clear what we use the word "apple" to represent. What we use the word "apple" to mean is apple. If we use the word "apple" to mean a dog, then that dog is an apple.
This kind of problem is ultimately unclear in theory, because the most important feature of theory is that words are used to explain words, and it is impossible for us to understand what words are ultimately used to represent in this way. For example, it's impossible to explain what an apple is by saying something like "an apple is a fruit" or "an apple is the fruit of an apple tree." In the end, we must grasp such problems in practice and understand them through our senses in practice. Only when we take out apples for people to see, touch, and eat can people really understand what the word "apple" is used for.
When we use the word "apple" to represent an object, we have to make it clear why we mean that object. There are so many objects around, why should we represent this object and not something else?
If we use the word "apple" to refer to the object, then we also need to make it clear why we use the word "apple" instead of other words, such as "chili".