Re: the role of metaphor in scientific thought
Posted by
Steve Smith on
Jun 23, 2017; 10:27pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/the-role-of-metaphor-in-scientific-thought-tp7590080p7590126.html
Nick sez:
We
have a word for tingo, don’t we? Its “to ”borrow””.
In my experience 'to "borrow" ', in our culture usually means to
"take without permission" or more bluntly "to steal". That extends
to "borrowing without returning" and anecdotally we are familiar
with those who seem to do this chronically, though I don't know of
it ever driving anyone to pauperhood. I suppose, in the right
extended context, one could claim that "tingo" and " 'borrow' "
(with quotes) are roughly sememes... but that is a LOT of context!
There are other words in Rapanui for "to steal" which seem to all
have an implication of "stealing things of little value", "to
pilfer". I'm not sure that "tingo" is a euphamism for simply
borrowing without returning, it might very well be a real cultural
experience that doesn't occur (often?) in our culture?
I wonder if there is an analog in "borrow words" between
languages... can one language "borrow" so many word from another
that the target of the borrowing becomes impoverished? Within
small circles I suppose that one could make that claim for
Pidgens/Creoles where the resulting language is so much richer than
the word-donor language that it might be true in some figurative
sense... or where the borrow words' meaning becomes more closely
associated with the borrowing language than the mother tongue?
Curiouser and curiouser,
- Steve
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.comFRIAM-COMIC
http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove