[lit-ideas] Greek To Me
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:23:00 EDT
In a message dated 7/12/2009 6:14:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
karltrogge@xxxxxxxx writes:
demonstrate how key terms such as
‘justice’, ‘fate’, & 'chance’ are by their very nature subject to
ambiguity, reaching out to an essential principle inherent in ancient
literature itself – the creation of multiple meaning.
----
I'll try.
But you'll grant that Janny Parker is not a native speaker of Greek. So
what does SHE know?
'justice', fate, chance
are NOT greek Terms.
it's DIKE, MOIRA and KHAOS.
----
Plato noticed that some Greek words are _obscure_. He said the reason may
be the Egyptians or the Ethipopians or the Phoenicians -- who introduced
something Plato always found otiose: the alphabet --.
(Cfr. Aristotle, Peri Hermeneias: the word is the sign of the
mind, the idea is the sign of the thing.
And the written word is the sign of the spoken word --
but the written word is otiose)
----
Plato noticed that some Greek words then, are of "BARBARIC origin".
How many women do you know called "Moira"? Surely that adds to the
ambiguity of the Greek term --. But again, it's MONOSEMY which we mean here
rather
than 'ambiguity' proper.
What Grice denies is POLYSEMY.
Indeed Adam Kilgariff, who worked FOR YEARS for the Longman Dictionary --
and I corresponded with -- ended up with his
"I don't believe in WORD SENSES!" (publication)
He went further than Grice and argues that
"Fregean sense"
-- for this is what we are considering here -- alla Grice, googlebooks
Reply to Richards --.
is a chimaera.
For Kilgariff, the very IDEA of 'sense' is otiose.
His example, 'horse'.
In an earlier edition of the Longman the definition ran:
horse. 1. a quadruped mammal. 2. the representation of a horse.
"Surely that's otiose" Kilgariff notes. There's MONOSEMY at best, and
ZERO-SEMY, as I call it, at worst!
But thanks for the links.
Cheers,
JL Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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