File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_2000/bhaskar.0003, message 13


Date: 2 Mar 2000 18:31:50 +0200
From: "TAHIR WOOD" <TWOOD-AT-uwc.ac.za>
Subject: Re: BHA: More on TD/ID




>>> "Tobin Nellhaus" <nellhaus-AT-gis.net> 03/02 4:20 PM >>>
 It occurs to me that it may be useful to think of the
transitive dimension as a feature of *thought*, since as a
couple people
have said, thought has to be *about* something, whereas a
potato isn't
"about" anything--the intransitive dimension is a feature of
real existence.

I would like to provide an example which shows just how
tricky posing it in this way might be. I recently
participated in a debate on the cognitive linguistics list
which was about whether there was a clear difference between
(a) conceptual structure and (b) semantics. Using the
distinction that is under discussion here, I suggested that
conceptual structure (as object of linguistic inquiry)
belongs to the ID, while semantics (as the scientific
practice of linguists) belongs to the TD; i.e. the latter is
the discourse ABOUT the former. Here is an extract from that
posting:

'Conceptual structure' is concerned with all those meanings
that ordinary folk have inside their heads and which somehow
become operationalised when they communicate or process
text. It is the 'black box' of scientific inquiry.
'Semantics' refers to the (metalinguistic) attempts of
certain linguists to describe what is inside the black box
and explain how it works.

I went on to mention of course that the tricky part is how
these two would inevitably interpenetrate. For example once
a linguist begins to construct or to acquire a semantic
theory (i.e. a theory about conceptual structure) it
immediately becomes a part of his or her own conceptual
structure in some way. 

Tahir
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
                                                            
            


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