Form following function [was "Latin and Slavonic for `moon'"]

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

I wrote:
<<The intention behind wheel was not to make a wheel or make a new kind of
wheel.  The intention behind the wheel was transportation.>>

In a message dated 5/18/99 3:57:03 PM, colkitto at sprint.ca wrote:

<<Actually, it's the other way round.    people tool around inventng all
sortsof gadgets, most of which are lost with their inventors.  Wheels
wereinvented all over the world.  Everywhere people were faced with "OK, what
are we going to use this for?" once they'd "invented" a given artefact.   It
was only in areas with large domesticable animals,... that people found a
"use" for what had started out as a clever toy (the wheel), and remained so
in many parts of the world. >>

People "tooling around" and "inventing all sorts of gadgets" are still
involved in functional behavior.  Exploring, experimenting, trying something
out are all intentional.

Function has a broader meaning here.  It's not 'practicality.'  Function
refers to a consequence, an effect on the environment.

A rock has form.  When a human picks one up to throw it, function is added.

A square wheel has form.  The problem is that it does not satisfy the
functionality requirement.

Form is everywhere.  What makes a difference between one form and another is
functionality.

Wheels on toys do the same thing that wheels on carts do - they allow the
object to move with less resistance.  Rocks rolling down hills with no one
around do the same thing.   Inventing something that rolls is not an
invention.  The difference between rocks rolling down a hill and a wheel is
human intentionality.  Wheels serve a purpose.

Wheels on carts serve a different function than on a toy - though both are
functional.  The moment a wheel was put on a cart and used for
transportation, a new function for objects that roll was introduced.

<<Function often follows form.>>

As far as human behavior is concerned, forms without function don't make it.
Square wheels do not create a function.  But the idea of square wheels do
have a function - they convey the idea of bad function.

You may be saying that form precedes function in the timeline.  That is
probably always true.  But "form follows function" does not refer to time.

But what determines whether a form stays or disappears is function.
Everything in the world has form.  What makes those forms matter is
intentionality.

<<The same phenomenon often happens in linguistic change - often distinctions
arise, and different functions have to be found for them.>>

But ONLY if they are found functional.  That is the only way they pass from
Saussure's "act of speech" into "the system of language."  No function HAS to
be found for them.  What happens is that they serve some function in language
- communication, reference, etc.

<<(cf. English of and off, the -a/-u genitive alternaton in Polish (see Janda
"Back from the Brink" for an excellent exposition).>>

I don't know the history of these changes.  I take it that they were
meaningless variations in speech that acquired specific functions later.  The
point is that unless that their chances of survival materially increased when
they acquired those functions.

Regards,
Steve Long