Re: Flight only among Insecta?

On Jun 26, 4:58 pm, UC <uraniumcommitteechair...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 26, 11:50 am, richardalanforr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:



On Jun 26, 4:32 pm, UC <uraniumcommitteechair...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jun 26, 11:22 am, richardalanforr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Jun 26, 4:10 pm, UC <uraniumcommit...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jun 26, 10:55 am, richardalanforr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

So words are introduced into language on an ad hoc basis, as I wrote
previously.

Nope. You cannot do that.

But that is what has happened! Who is going to stop it happening?

You cannot simply "write off" the meaning of
a word as if it didn't exist. You cannot argue your way out of court
by appealing to the judge that you don't accept the court's
definitions. A major part of the legal profession is concerned
specifically with interpreting the law, which is written in words.

In law words has specific meanings which are tightly and clearly
defined.

Do you understand WHY, and why it is important?

Yes. It's because in law, as in science and other academic and
technical subjects the precise meanings of words is important.

Correct.

The same does not apply to vernacular or common speech.

Of course it does, for similar reasons. Communication is impaired if
language is not carefully used. Why are wome writers so much more
interesting to read? Their choice of words is exact and deliberate,
among other things.

The most interesting writers frequently use words in a non-standard in
or deliberately ambiguous way. They introduce neologisms, shift the
meanings of existing words, and generally play with language in a way
which would be utterly inappropriate in a technical or legal context.

Not always, in fact, quite rarely.



Language is a tool for communication, not a club with which to beat
people over the head.

Yes.





"It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-
black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-
rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black,
crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles
(though moles see fine tonight in the snouting, velvet dingles) or
blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the
town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds.
And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.

Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen
and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the
undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher,
policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives. Young girls lie
bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux,
bridesmaided by glow-worms down the aisles of the organplaying wood.
The boys are dreaming wicked or of the bucking ranches of the night
and the jollyrodgered sea. And the anthracite statues of the horses
sleep in the fields, and the cows in the byres, and the dogs in the
wetnosed yards; and the cats nap in the slant corners or lope sly,
streaking and needling, on the one cloud of the roofs. "

RF

Hah, I'll see that and raise you Anthony Trollope, from "Can You
Forgive Her?"

"Nothing could be more lovely and enticing than the scene before her.
The night had come on, with quick but still unperceived approach, as
it does in those parts; for the twilight there is not prolonged as it
is with us more northern folk. The night had come on, but there was a
rising moon, which just sufficed to give a sheen to the water beneath
her. The air was deliciously soft-of that softness which produces no
sensation either of warmth or cold, but which just seems to touch one
with loving tenderness, as though the unseen spirits of the air kissed
one's forehead as they passed on their wings. The Rhine was running at
her feet, so near, that in the soft half light it seemed as though she
might step into its ripple. The Rhine was running by with that
delicious sound of rapidly moving waters, that fresh refreshing gurgle
of the river, which is so delicious to the ear at all times. If you be
talking, it wraps up your speech, keeping it for yourselves, making it
difficult neither to her who listens nor to him who speaks. If you
would sleep, it is of all lullabies the sweetest. If you are alone and
would think, it aids all your thoughts. If you are alone, and, alas!
would not think-if thinking be too painful-it will dispel your sorrow,
and give the comfort which music alone can give. Alice felt that the
air kissed her, that the river sang for her its sweetest song, that
the moon shone for her with its softest light-that light which lends
the poetry of half-developed beauty to everything that it touches. Why
should she leave it?"



The most interesting writers frequently use words in a non-standard in
or deliberately ambiguous way. They introduce neologisms, shift the
meanings of existing words, and generally play with language in a way
which would be utterly inappropriate in a technical or legal context.

I see that you agree with me.

RF

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Flight only among Insecta?
    ... technical subjects the precise meanings of words is important. ... language is not carefully used. ... which would be utterly inappropriate in a technical or legal context. ... If you are alone, and, alas! ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Flight only among Insecta?
    ... technical subjects the precise meanings of words is important. ... language is not carefully used. ... which would be utterly inappropriate in a technical or legal context. ... If you are alone, and, alas! ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Plausibility Check
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  • Re: Flight only among Insecta?
    ... language is not carefully used. ... rising moon, which just sufficed to give a sheen to the water beneath ... would sleep, it is of all lullabies the sweetest. ... If you are alone, and, alas! ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Plausibility Check
    ... then you have no prediction. ... Did I say opposite meanings? ... When a discovery leads to a scientific law, ... And for the record, language is not spelling, in case you foolishly ...
    (sci.lang)