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- Xref: sparky sci.cognitive:713 sci.philosophy.tech:4194 sci.lang:8121 sci.philosophy.meta:2656
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- Newsgroups: sci.cognitive,sci.philosophy.tech,sci.lang,sci.philosophy.meta
- Subject: Re: Folk Theories of Meaning
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.093213.17627@husc3.harvard.edu>
- From: zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny)
- Date: 20 Nov 92 09:32:11 EST
- References: <1992Nov17.172125.17543@husc3.harvard.edu> <1992Nov19.211450.9582@news.Hawaii.Edu>
- Organization: The Phallogocentric Cabal
- Nntp-Posting-Host: husc10.harvard.edu
- Lines: 47
-
- In article <1992Nov19.211450.9582@news.Hawaii.Edu>
- lee@Hawaii.Edu (Greg Lee) writes:
-
- >Michael Zeleny (zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu) wrote:
-
- GL:
- >>>... Having shown that two sentences imply each other
- >>>in some logical syntax, what is gained except confusion by proceeding
- >>>to associate some esoteric meaning-thing with them both?
-
- MZ:
- >>Invariance under selection of specific syntax. Explanation of
- >>syntactical rules. That, and bivalence. In short, truth. ...
-
- GL:
- >Justifying a semantic account of paraphrase by appeal to some need
- >felt need to give an account of truth is circular.
-
- Only if you feel that there is no need for a theoretical account of truth.
-
- GL:
- > "Explanation of
- >syntactical rules" sounds nice, except that no syntactical rule of any
- >natural language has ever been explained semantically, and there is no
- >reason to think one ever will.
-
- Ah so. May I suggest that you get off your throne, go to the nearest
- library, and look up the subjects of relational and functional grammar?
- While you are at it, you might check out an elementary introduction to
- the semantic explanation of syntax, _Grammar and Meaning_ by Howard
- Jackson.
-
- GL:
- >(I'm reading this in sci.lang, but I'm beginning to suspect you do
- >not intend what you are saying to have any relevance to natural
- >language. If not, think about editing your newgroups line.)
-
- I have thought about editing my newsgroup line at some length, consequently
- abstaining from cross-posting to sci.lang.dogmatic.transformational-grammar.
- Perhaps you ought to confine your activities to that group, which is more
- likely to preserve intact your peculiar intuitions of natural language.
-
- cordially,
- mikhail zeleny@husc.harvard.edu
- "Le cul des femmes est monotone comme l'esprit des hommes."
-
-
-