[lit-ideas] Re: Trapped in the Basement of Language
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 13:23:15 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 10/2/2011 12:42:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx writes:
I don't relate to language intellectually as most philosophers seem to.
I'm much more attracted to the ways that words in combination awaken worlds
in us. The basement of language -- linguistic philosophy?
---- R. Paul should be able to expand (as to what he meant,
metaphorically). For Grice, metaphors are falsities, so 'basement of language'
literally
involves a category mistake (Grice's example, "You are the cream in my
coffee" -- hardly used literally, Grice notes).
A house is not a home. A basement is not an attic. Perhaps linguistic
philosophy is the right expression. There are other metaphors usually used
(sic)
with lingo: berths, deep berths of language (Grice uses), 'seas of
language' Kripke uses (and Dummett acknowledges). The fact of 'being trapped'
is a
resolution by R. Paul of Witters's (Wittgenstein's) point about 'language
on holiday', betwitched by language. Trapped without a key, he means.
Witters said that a language is like an old city (I think he meant
Amsterdam): where you get lost easily. Unlike Washington, DC, say. This he said
in
German.
Finally, back to Geary's point about linguistic philosophy. The idea indeed
that the philosopher's job is to demistify (if that's a verb) the
_categorial_ structure of lingo. Grice and many others (e.g. Sapir and his
sometime
'lover', Whorf) thought that this categorial structure reflects a deeper
ontological if not cognitive structure.
"Sometime", sometimes, all time, all times, no time, every time, etc. all
reflect ways -- hence R. Paul's point that while both 'sometime' and
'sometimes' (sic) are BOTH adverbial, he still feels trapped in the basement
of
language, by which he meant English (rather than Latin, where 'sometimes' is
untranslatable -- cfr. modern Italian).
Etc.
Cheers,
Speranza
-- from the Open Loggia of Language, overlooking IT
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