From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!malgudi.oar.net!yfn.ysu.edu!ysub!psuvm!cunyvm!ndsuvm1!moriarty Tue Nov 19 11:09:35 EST 1991
Article 1261 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network
Date: Sunday, 10 Nov 1991 20:33:47 CST
>From: <MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Message-ID: <91314.203347MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Sapir-Whorf
References: <1991Nov4.202823.1328@news.larc.nasa.gov> <431@trwacs.UUCP>
 <91309.175700MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET> <1991Nov6.163441.3770@psych.toronto.edu>

Dear Christopher Green,

That is an interesting observation.  I did not know that Chinese has
no subjunctive.  As an English professor, however, I do know that
undergraduate English has no subjunctive.  But they seem able to
communicate.

I suggest that the problem with the Sair-Whorf thesis is the linking
of semantic value to syntagmatic value.  I hope that doesn't sound
pretentious; it's merely an economical way of saying it.  Semantic
value is the content/meaning of words, structures, what-have-you.
Syntagmatic value is the way the strings of words/lexemes is put
together.  Idealist philosophers appear to need to postulate an
obscure linkage between them.

The first axiom of semiotic linguistics is that there is no inherent
linkage in that relationship.  It is entirely arbitrary and arises
from the field of social practice into which the speaker is born.
It's astonishing to me that the idealists need to find a linkage
to protect the archaic magical power of words from ... scientists?

>LOGOFF.:-)

Michael/email:MORIARTY@NDSUVM1


