On Oct 17, 2008, at 3:15 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The list grows longer. After today's postings it's now:
gift
talent
aptitude
skill
capacity
craft
The question I was asking was, in effect, does any lister feel that
he could
"Could"? Does? Can? Why the note of probability or conditionality?
prescribe
"Prescribe"? Assign? Evoke?
different notions for each of these words?
Okay, Mister Smarty Notion: What does "different" summon up in your
mind in this context? Does any degree of differentiation constitute a
difference (or as the saying goes, can there be a mere "distinction
without a difference")? Does a generic difference between, say,
"talent" and "brick" denote a greater range or span than a difference
within a category, such as between "talent" and "aptitude"? If so,
would you say that one's linguistic faculty uses a sequential range of
generalities, within which related word-notions are grouped, some of
which signify nested relationships and other of which indicate
equivalent terms?
(Notice: I claim only muddled thinking leads one to ask the
questions in the
form, "What IS talent?" "What IS craft?" etc. The very form of that
question
"reifies": It erroneously assumes it's not a question of language
usage ("This
is what I call 'craft' etc") but of what it "really is", and now
it's our job
to go discover what craft "really is".)
Would you say there's overlap (for you) in some of the notions?
Would you say
you use some of them synonymously, interchangeably? In a fairly
rigorous
philosophic discussion, it's wise to sacrifice the felicity of
avoiding
repetition of the same word again and again. Banish one of any pair
of "synonymous"
words. Use the same word each time you want to occasion the same
notion in
your reader.
Why does anyone choose one word instead of another "of similar
meaning"? Doesn't this point to the crux of everything you've posted,
namely, that different words evoke different responses (notions,
cherished feelings, even 'meanings')?
And why stop with discrete words? Why not go to the full linguistic
expression, namely, sentences and larger utterances?
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Michael Brady
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
