Thank you Cheerskep. Would you accept that assumption of the reality of
signs makes for more efficient (if strictly speaking, inaccurate)
communication i.e. the figure had a skirt on - as opposed to: my brain
interpreted the triangle on the stick figure on the door as being what
others call a "skirt" and I imagined that its siignificance in this setting
was that the conveniences which I imagined being behind the (real) door were
reserved for females?
Geoff C
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: "Signs"
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 20:18:30 EDT
Geoff writes:
> Being scrupulous: Re your viewing a "sign" on a washroom door: I don't
> think you see a skirt, I think you see a shape which your mind goes to
work on
> and construes as an indicator of "skirt"."
>
Geoff is commenting on this passge I wrote:
> I do take a stick figure with a skirt on a lavatory door as a sign the
> >lavatory is for women only. It's a drawing intended to occasion an idea
in
> my head, and it does that.
>
Geoff is right. The stick figure doesn't actually have a skirt. There may
be
other more complicated paintings when we can accept the likes of, "You
notice
that the shield the figure on the right is holding has an insignia on
it..."
But not here. I should have said we see a shape that our receiving and
processing apparatus associates with the shape of a skirt, and, by
association, we
infer the intention of the guy who created the drawing on the door was to
make us
think "woman".
>
**************
New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination.
Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out!
(http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000001)
