Lluis,
Im not saying that Westerners, in fact all humans that manifest a
dualistic, discriminating mind, are tied to subject/object and verbs that
describe action. Thats a given.
What Im saying is that there are forms of English (and I suppose other
languages) that are utterances free from subject/object/verb, that are not
restricted by grammar.
In the example phrases I used below: Hungry! and Fire!, YOU are the one
who is interjecting the dualism. If I yell Fire! or Duck! you will
first just equate the sound to DANGER and react BEFORE you mentally
reconstruct and augment the sound to I have observed a fire and want to be
sure you are aware of it.
Other non-exclamatory examples are in poetry, especially zen-inspired haikus
such as Basho's famous haiku in which he attempted to communicate a DIRECT
EXPERIENCE (Buddha Mind) he had. There are many attempts at translating
this haiku, and the results show me whether or not the translator was
translating with his/her discriminating mind or Buddha Mind:
ORIGINAL JAPANESE
Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto (Basho)
DUALISTIC/DISCRIMINATING MIND TRANSLATION
There once was a curious frog
Who sat by a pond on a log
And, to see what resulted,
In the pond catapulted
With a water-noise heard round the bog. (Alfred H. Marks)
MIX OF DUALISTIC/DISCRIMINATING MIND AND BUDDHA MIND TRANSLATION
Into the ancient pond
A frog jumps
Waters sound! (D.T. Suzuki)
BUDDHA MIND TRANSLATION
pond
frog
plop! (James Kirkup)
Remember when I posted about what I describe as 'zen talk' and 'talking
about zen'? The first translation above is 'talking about an experience'.
The second is a mix, and the third is 'experience talk' - or 'zen talk'.
The point is that language does have the ability to be used and to
communicate non-dualistic (no subject/object/verb) experiences. Language
evolved, not engineered. It is not appropriate to try to superimpose a
logical structure on an evolved system. The grammatical rules that we
associate with languages have been developed AFTER-THE-FACT, not CONCURRENT
with the language. For example humans could speak and communicate very well
before anyone ever decided to categorize words into nouns, verbs, subjects
and objects. All this grammar is imposed upon language in an attempt to
'understand' language. 'Understand' always means 'impose a logical
structure'.
...Bill!
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Lluís Mendieta
Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2010 4:42 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: FW: Quote from St. Thomas Aquinas
Hi, Bill
Hungry! has also an implied subject: I am hungry!
Fire! has also one, "it" : It is in fire! (although could be also "there is
a fire!" and that would be impersonal, I suppose)
Ugghhhhh!
Y only know true impersonals (no subject ) in spanish, catalan and french
On vende .....
Se vende botellas ("se venden botellas" is a pasiva refleja, not a true
impersonal.... That drived me crazy in Bacchaloreat....)
Seems that westerners are tied to sujects and verbs.
With best wishes
Lluís
----- Original Message -----
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2010 3:39 AM
Subject: RE: [Zen] Re: FW: Quote from St. Thomas Aquinas
Lluis,
In the example I used Hungry? you are correct that the subject (you) is
implied probably because it is a question. How about Hungry!; or better
yet Fire!?. In the case of Fire! there is no subject/object implied
just Fire!, Just THIS!
Its interesting to learn that Finnish has a lot of words to define
relationships.
Bill!
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Lluís Mendieta
Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2010 4:06 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: FW: Quote from St. Thomas Aquinas
Hi, Bill
I beg to differ in two non zen questions
-Hungry? has the subject implicit. You do not place it, but it is implied.
The werb in spanish or catalan would be also implicit, so, I suppose same
in english.
-finnish is a westerner language. And they have a lot of words to design the
relationship within family.
With best wishes
Lluís
----- Original Message -----
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2010 8:09 AM
Subject: RE: [Zen] Re: FW: Quote from St. Thomas Aquinas
Anthony,
I know Thais drop subject and sometimes even object all the time, but I
thought it was just because they, like Westerners, are lazy.
For example, I could ask you: Are you hungry?, or I could just ask by
saying: Hungry? (with a rising tone). That's just laziness, or being
casual in your speech.
I do think language does reveal the different values of culture. For
example in Thai there are only 3 tenses: past, present and future; whereas
there are many, many adjectives and pronouns that are used to specifically
identify the speaker's relationship with the one addressed. In English
there are many (27?) verb tenses and very few special pronouns. This I
think shows that Westerner's value time more than Asians; whereas Asians put
more importance on personal relationships than time.
...Bill!
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
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