LL-L "Grammar" 2004.09.08 (06) [E]

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From: Jo Thys <Jo.Thijs1 at pandora.be>
Subject: LL-L "Syntax" 2004.09.08 (02) [E]

John,

> I believe William of Ockham actually said something like "Do not multiply
> instances" which is suitably impenetrable.

Ockham's Chainsaw is not made for linguistic problems but rather metafysical
ones like "(Ockham) he is deep in thought about the question of "Whether a
Higher Angel Knows Through Fewer Species than a Lower." Using the principle
that "plurality should not be posited without necessity" he argues that the
answer to the question is in the
affirmative"(http://skepdic.com/occam.html).  (impenetrable?) He also cites
Aristotle's notion that "the more perfect a nature is the fewer means it
requires for its operation."

When other sciences discarded Aritotelian ideas the real science could begin
to flourish. Linguistics still build on his frame, not for the sake of his
arguments but because he was rich and powerfull enough to found his own
school and made his pupils say whatever he wanted 'm to. Linguistics haven't
made any real progression since: de Saussure and Chomsky grossly state the
same structural view, dressed as new. I'm an anomalist  and believe nothing
a man (or woman) ever says is the result of some (deliberate) creation of
new sounds, grammatical patterns or ideas. According to this view every
dissimilarity in languages have to be explained, according to the
Aristotelian view every similarity (in one language). Therefore i don't go
for an ethymological explanation, which really was shite, but for a whole
paradigm change. In the end its the old dogmatic-dreamer discussion, evil
against good!

Don't bother to use the whole range, John, i like island sarcasm.

Groeten,

Jo Thys

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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Syntax" 2004.09.08 (04) [E]

Dear Mark Brenchly,

Subject: LL-L "Syntax"

> What William of Occam actually said was "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine
> neccesitate", literally something like "Don't posit multiplicity unless
> necessary",

Hi! & Yess!

But I point out that the problem with interpretation owes more to the
shortcomings of the language than those who would like to use it. Some
languages have not been tested & tempered in the fires of logical argument
as long or as thoroughly as Scholarly Latin. And Modern English among many
others is woolly! If I must obfuscate I know my best bet, even if it is not
my mother tongue, is English.

Who would challenge this interpretation? Or the application, that [given
nothing better to go on] the simplest explanation is [likely] to be the most
accurate?
It is of course not the first or the only test of a proposition, but it is
true some lazy people are happy to use it as an argument in itself.

Write more!

Yrs,
Mark Dreyer

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