[lit-ideas] Modified Occam's Razor
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:22:23 EDT
In a message dated 7/10/2009 9:13:35 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
wokshevs@xxxxxx writes:
Quoting Eric Yost _mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxxx (mailto:mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx) :
> Volodya: Are the droppings identical in meaning?
> Eric: Ask an experienced hunter.
-----
If in doubt, ALWAYS apply "Modified Occam's Razor" (c) H. P. Grice:
Occam: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
Grice: Senses should not be multiplied beyond necessity.
Corollary: MONOGUITY.
What people stupidly call 'ambiguity' (even sometimes not realising that
ambi- only applies to _two_ things) is ALMOST ALWAYS 'mono-guity': ONE-WAY,
or UNI-GUITY: one-way.
Grice and I _never_ discovered an ambiguous (or 'equi-' vocal, as he also
called them) word.
ALL WORDS ARE UNI-GUOUS.
The reason is transcendental: the nomothetes (in Cratylo's sense) would
NEVER have one single word do 'double-duty'. Double duty is ILLEGAL.
For each lexeme ONE SENSE.
For 'drop' there is only ONE sense. The apparently 'other' senses are
DERIVATIONS, to be inferred by implicature, from the ORIGINAL sense. If you
lack
inferential powers to do the work, ask me or any other qualified Gricean.
NEVER hypothesise another 'sense'.
'SenseS' in plural is ILL-Formed. It's like talking of GODs.
The OED is to be blamed here. But note that 'fig'. is never CONSIDERED a
different 'sense'. It's a figurative (i.e. metaphorical) extension, i.e. a
conversational implicature.
For Grice's account of the metaphor behind, "You're the cream in my coffee"
vide googlebooks.
"DROP" has only ONE sense.
All the other alleged 'senses' are in fact figurative 'uses'.
The BASIC, only, sense, is 'physic'. It refers to a BIRD DROP.
x drops.
If it falls.
It cannot 'drop' up. It's always drop 'down'. Hence 'drop down' becomes
'otiose' (but not, of course, false).
Anything can _drop_. But it always means:
GO-DOWN.
What is so enigmatic about that concept? Walter. Surely there must be a
word in your native language for that easy concept, no?
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
The Grice Club, etc
The Swiming-Pool Library
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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