[B-Greek] APOLUTRWSIS
Barry
nebarry at verizon.net
Sun Mar 18 19:35:15 EST 2007
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mitch Larramore" <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
To: "Barry" <nebarry at verizon.net>; "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 9:16 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] APOLUTRWSIS
> What if I argued as follows:
>
> All words have innate meaning, and it is this
> characteristic, and this only, that distinguishes one
> word from another word. Words have semantic domains,
> and within each domain nuances, but to say a word has
> no "innate" meaning 'assumes innate meaning' in words
> to affirm that they do not have innate meaning. For
> example, you used the word "innate" instead of
> "elephant." (Was there something already assigned to
> the word 'innate' that distingished it from 'elephant'
> and therefore you chose it for this usage (context)
> and not elephant?)
Shall we follow Plato or Aristotle here? "Innate" and "elephant" are both words
in English with quite restricted semantic ranges, so that your example really
doesn't relate. Would you care to tell me what the innate meanings of the words
"run" and "scan" are in English? I am supplying English examples because it
makes the point better for us native English (or American) speakers than Greek,
for which it is very difficult for modern students to "feel" the semantic range
of the word in the same way an ancient would have.
> I seems silly to me, but having said that, I assume
> this is a linguistic statement (that words don't have
> innate meaning). So, could you explain what this
> statement is suppose to mean?
It means that words don't have innate meaning, but only meaning in context.
With words that have a wide semantic range, what we think of as the "innate" or
"primary" meaning is usually the most common usage.
> Also, why do we post questions out here if not to get
> others' perspective. Every question asked out here
> could be answered with "look at several commentaries
> or lexica (hence, this site has been shut down)." I
> did look at my new BDAG but I was not satisfied that
> it answered my question.
Then perhaps you are not asking a lexical question?
"The captain could run the ship with a run in her stocking after the crew
members had run a race on the run on Deck 10..."
Barry
Millihelen: precisely the amount of beauty needed to launch one ship...
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/
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