"narrative"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/28/2008 11:07 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>You may be right, Fred, but the relative familiarity of the word
>itself suggests that the meaning (here at least) is still related to "story."
>
>   But possibly not for long.  For poststructuralists, any account
> of anything can be considered "only a theory."  OTOH, to say that
> "*Einstein's narrative of relativity is E=MC[superscript 2]" sounds
> too weird, at least to me.  Not enough story.

A narrative with not enough story but plenty of characters:  the
telephone book.

Joel


>   JL
>
>"Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Shapiro, Fred"
>Subject: Re: "narrative"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Is the sense here "a version or projection of events based on a
>present trend," or is it simply a trendy synonym for "explanation"
>or "theory" ?
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
>________________________________________
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM]
>Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:17 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: "narrative"
>
>This ought to be introduced as OED 2.d, meaning "a version or
>projection of events based on a present trend":
>
>2008 _America's Newsdesk_ (Fox News Channel) (Feb. 26): There's a
>narrative out there that [Clinton] is fighting for her life.
>
>They've been using this sense a lot lately. "In the Administration's
>narrative, the surge will, etc. etc."
>
>JL
>
>
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