Glokaja kuzdra shteko budlanula bokra

[Adassovsky Georges]

>> I'd like to point out (and agree with one of the participants of the
>> discussion, Robert Orr) that sentences of this kind have a meaning, and not
>> only a grammatical one. One of the possible semantic interpretations of
>> this phrase can be found in Boris Gasparov's wonderful book "Jazyk.
>> Pamjat'. Obraz" (Moscow 1996), pp. 94-96.


>I tend to disagree with that. Once I puzzled myself trying to make up a
>word that would have no meaning whatsoever. It turned out to be a
>non-trivial task, for anything I would come up with had, as you say,
>semantic aura for me. The word "shteko," for example, invariably stack to
>"shteker," and I imagined a sinister creature lifting up the poor "bokr"
>(or, rather, "bokyor?") on two sharpened fork-like fingers. Shteko thus
>meant "shtekeropodobno." "Budlanula" means more or less "bodnula", but
>phonetic similarity is not a semantic guide. I can bring more examples.
>
>Semantic aura, as I see it, should be classified more or less as a
>subjective feeling and dealt with from the aesthetic, rather than
>linguistic point of view. Not one word out of the famous phrase (apart
>>from "i") has specific meaning. "Kuzdra," though imaginable, is nowhere
>defined, it is not a russian word, and thus has no meaning as well as
>"shteko" and "bokr."
>
>I do not bring arguments of the type "it is not in the dictionary,"
>because for me anything that is created according to word generation
>traditions (I do not even say "laws") and sounds well for the language can
>be considered to be a "legal" word. Scherba's example, however, does not
>contain anything naturally generated, not even onomatopaeic creatures or
>etymologically traceable roots. It's charm and "intolerable lightness of
>being" is in its agreeable sound. It is void of meaning, because anyone
>who desires to bestow a meaning upon it, can do it according to his own
>connotations and associations, and the fact that it can be translated in
>different ways underlines this observation. From my point of view.
>
>
>                                       Sincerely,
>                                                       Alexey Fuchs

Well, Scherba tryed to demonstrate something through his sentence, doesn't he?

Georges

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                http://members.home.net/lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------