form versus meaning

[Daniel L. Everett]

Territorial imperialism? I like the ring of that. That pretty well
describes what goes on at most universities across the country as Chairs
argue for resources from Deans. But that is another matter.

Here is all I am saying:

To make the statement in (i) presupposes (ii)

(i) 'I have discovered the historical/biological/psychological/sociological
basis for X'

(ii) I (or somebody I am talking to) understands X.

If that is territorial imperialism, then my mental lexicon will have to
open new files for those terms.

-- Dan

P.S. Tom is right when he says that linguists are profounding ignorant
about biology. So are biologists when they are honest. But as George
Miller said in Lg. a few years back, we would all benefit from knowing
more about everything. So that is a truism. And I know that Tom had
graduate training in microbiology. Linguists are also ignorant of theology
(my other training), but I am not going to ask them to consider
theological arguments - but cf. Mark Baker's chapter in The Polysynthesis
Parameter.

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Dan Everett
Department of Linguistics
University of Pittsburgh
2816 CL
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: 412-624-8101; Fax: 412-624-6130
http://www.linguistics.pitt.edu/~dever