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Internet Message Format  |  1992-12-22  |  1.6 KB
  1. Path: sparky!uunet!news.tek.com!tekig7!tekig5!briand
  2. From: briand@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Brian D Diehm)
  3. Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
  4. Subject: Meaning? What meaning?
  5. Message-ID: <8064@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM>
  6. Date: 22 Dec 92 18:34:32 GMT
  7. References: <92357.121648HERSCH@auvm.american.edu>
  8. Sender: news@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM
  9. Reply-To: briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
  10. Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
  11. Lines: 29
  12.  
  13. >Gee, four totally different definitions for "shit-eating grin".
  14. >Maybe it doesn't really mean anything in particular? Effective
  15. >communication with this expression would seem dicey at best.
  16. >
  17. >Herschel Browne
  18. >"The" American University
  19.  
  20. This is really pretty interesting. As "linguists" we want to think that the
  21. words carry the meaning. But the existence of such expressions, expressions
  22. that mean whatever the speaker wants them to mean, belie that theory.
  23.  
  24. Shakespeare used this tool a lot (we think): coined expressions that convey
  25. their meaning by usage and implication alone. Being coined and thus never
  26. before heard, they cannot convey meaning precisely.
  27.  
  28. It's akin to that satisfying "thunk" you feel when you first hear an expression
  29. that you'd never think up yourself, but you just *know* what it means because
  30. you wish you *had* thought it up yourself.
  31.  
  32. So, perhaps, Herschel's worry that effective communication is at risk isn't
  33. such a worry after all; the expression carries its own meaning so well that
  34. the listener understands the intended concept precisely.
  35.  
  36. The science of onomatopoetics?
  37. --
  38. Brian Diehm
  39. Tektronix, Inc.                (503) 627-3437         briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
  40. P.O. Box 500, M/S 19-286
  41. Beaverton, OR   97077
  42.