Klarinet Archive - Posting 000451.txt from 2002/11

From: Mark Gresham <mgresham@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Vocabulary vs. thought
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 23:54:40 -0500

Stan T wrote:
>
> At 12:12 PM 11/11/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >Stan T wrote:
> > >
> Mark;
> I concur with the thrust of your argument that people apply
> language to the world they observe, but I think the relationship between
> words and concepts influence each other.

Stan,

Absolutely they do.
That is not the same as saying that there is a fixed, absolute reality
that is exclusively represented by a totally parallel and fixed
linguistic one. (Words and their combinations representing concepts, I
reject a kind of dualism of precisely parallel conceptual/experiential
worlds.)
That our experiences inform our language, and that vice versa is true
as well, is well within scope of my meaning.
The precise use of "dark" cannot be quantifiable, will have some
differnces and commonalities between any two different people, but is
quite useful in "ordinary" use as a shared starting point for
communcating ideas, even with misunderstandings and disagreements that
have to be worked out later. That it is not a more precise or
quantifiable technical term for "special" use is a different issue.
One of my contentions is that reduction of everything to only what is
quantifiable may miss out on a big dang chunk of reality.
(Viva Umberto Eco, BTW.)
But we're going deeply into non-clarinet issues here, and I'd guess
that most readers are more likely just interested in whether one player
is producing a "darker" sound than another. In the "vernacular" sense,
I mean.

--
Mark Gresham, composer
mgresham@-----.com/
Lux Nova Press http://www.luxnova.com/
LNP Retail Webstore http://www.luxnova.com/lnpwebstore/

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