Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA00983 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 20 Mar 2000 23:16:52 GMT Message-Id: <4.1.20000320144008.00c9a680@mail.rdc1.bc.wave.home.com> X-Sender: dplante@mail.rdc1.bc.wave.home.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1 Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 15:16:58 -0800 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Dan Plante <dplante@home.com> Subject: Re: Complete thoughts In-Reply-To: <003401bf9216$6936d440$0215fed8@speakeasy.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 06:43 PM 19/03/00 -0800 Chris Abraham wrote:
>Do you, in light of the structural integrity of French in France, compared
>to the fluidity of American English, believe our current flux in language -
>from franco-centric to bastardized American - to affect the coding sequence
>argument?
No, not at all - simply because I don't see much of any fluidity or flux in any
written language that I know of. If there was, bureaucracies (governments,
corporate entities, scientific associatons, legal bodies etc.) would collapse,
since their stability rests on precise interpretation of semantic content.
Written languages (and their intrinsic syntactic/semantic relationship) emerged
for just this purpose, and have been slowly evolving to ever more rigid and
precise systems as culture becomes larger and more complex.
I think you may be referring (at the risk of seeming pedantic) specifically to
vocabulary, not to methods of semantic interpretation (the "code" system
itself)? Certainly, there is always fluidity and flux at this level, just as
there is stochastic behaviour at any level, but it is a social, not a cultural
phenomenon, I believe. Any additions / changes / deletions to the vocabulary of
a spoken language are social. Any of the same to a written language are
mediated by lexicographers (cultural bodies), and then become "official" - the
very hallmark of "cultural". This process evolved so that cultures could
maximize and maintain their own integrity.
Slang on the street is the "noise floor" of a cultural system.
Dan
>Dan Plante wrote on 19/3/00 3:22:
>
>>In essence, these are code
>>systems where the
>>RELATIONSHIP between
>>syntax and semantics is
>>rigidly codified itself, but the
>>RANGE of SEMANTIC
>>EXPRESSION is, nonetheless,
>>completely open.
>
>
>--
>chris abraham, washington, dc, usa
>via visor handheld
>
>
>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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