Virgil and context

[Dan Goncharoff]

I think this ignores, rather than addresses, the original article, which
argued that the Virgil quote was a weak choice, because its original context
did not support the current usage. It also gave an example of a strong
choice, for comparison.

DanG

On Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 1:40 PM, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Virgil and context
>
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>
> If the denotations and connotations of a phrase are somehow fixed for
> all time by the initial context of application then one must await
> additional archaeological discoveries to determine the "true" meaning
> of a phrase such as "Nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo." For
> example, some future investigation might reveal that the Latin phrase
> was first employed before Virgil's text to commemorate a group of
> villagers who were massacred by a marauding army.
>
> This would upend and discredit the Virgilian meaning. It would become
> a travesty to use the phrase to commemorate warriors when its primal
> (and hence overruling) use was to condemn militaristic savagery
> directed against innocents.
>
> Alternatively, one might contend that the meaning of a phrase is
> determined only in part by the palimpsest of previous uses. It is also
> determined by envisioning future uses that are not arbitrarily
> straitjacketed by previous cultural identifications.
>
>
>

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