From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Thu 24 Oct 2002 - 05:07:23 GMT
> Grant:
> > Words are not memes themselves because they can mean anything
> > depending on the circumstances in which they are received. They
> > carry information but
> are
> > not the information being carried. The meanings they carry are
> > arbitrary
> and
> > any word can stand for anything. For example:
> >
> > I am a man.
> > I am A man.
> > I am a MAN
> > I AM a man.
> >
> > The mere shift in emphasis changes the sentence above so it
> > transmits
> four
> > different meanings. The first emphasizes the word "I" and that
> > points to
> who
> > is a man. The second emphasizes the word "A" and points to the fact
> > that
> the
> > speaker is one of many men. The third emphasizes the word "man" and
> > points to the idea of manliness as part of the speaker's essence.
> > The fourth, emphasizes the word "am" and is used to confirm that the
> > speaker is indeed
> a
> > man.
>
> Okay, the sentences by way of different articulation carry different
> and separate meanings. So each sentence could pass for a separate
> meme. But the separate words still carry the same meaning, it is the
> shift of emphasis that adds a unique semantic flavor to it. So each
> word, having a unique conceptual meaning and which obviously can be
> replicated, are memes in their own right still. I acknowledge,
> however, that some words can have more than one meaning depending on
> the relevant context but that doesn't change the fact that those words
> have stand-alone meaning and thus are separate memetic carriers of
> information. You can experience this yourself by teaching a new word
> to a 5-year old.
>
> Phil
>
This phenomenon is known as polysemy, and the foremost theorist in
the field is (surprise!) the hermeneutical phenomenologist Paul Ricoeur.
>
> ===============================================================
> 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
>
===============================================================
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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