From: "Glen Gordon" <
glengordon01@...>
> Stefan to Piotr:
> >[S] My dear Piotr, language is chaos, linguistics is order and
never the twain shall meet.
> Is language truely complete chaos, my dear Stefan? I think > few
would agree with you.
> However, studying a somewhat illogical
> specimen as the human animal does not give us excuse to succumb to
irrational theories
"Complete", my dear gLeN, is your word, not mine. You are presumably
taking "chaos" as a synonim of disorder and confusion. What I meant
was that language seen as a complex system of interacting subsystems
lends itself ideally to the theory of chaos. This is just my
personal view and I have no idea whether any mainline linguists are
thinking on those lines.
Now you may may call the chaos theory irrational and I would not
wish to argue with your choice of epithets. However, take my
friendly advice and don't call it such names outside this list. Most
universities are currently investigating this theory, big businesses
are applying it to their managment systems, mathematicians,
physicists, astronomers et al. are writing papers and books about
it. They claim to be as logical as you are, and yet they admit that
order follows from chaos and order dissolves into chaos. As language
does except that we hardly ever notice it.
> Oh dear. Look, I have many Chinese friends being in Computer
Science. Even they understand that
> Feng-Shui is an irrational "science"...
You have an endearing sense of humour and I like it, really.
Chinese computer scientists think that feng shui is irrational?
Wow! Do they also have the same view of acupuncture which came to
our medical world from their country? I bet they do.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. An old formula for survival in a
hostile environment. :-) They wouldn't dare to say that feng shui
was rubbish to their pals in Peking.
> If we paid attention to every little theory from amongst billions
that have existed and currently exist in the world, no matter how
infantile they appear to us, we'd become too
> confused and busy to find any truth!
Dear gLeN, are you sure that you are not talking about yourself in
this context? "Too confused and busy to find any truth"? No, I am
sorry. Obviously you are talking about me as you are entitled to,
although arguments ad personam betray ...uhmm, something..but what?
a logical mind, perhaps.
>You obviously have trouble discerning what makes logical sense and
what doesn't.
> That makes you a "unique" person... one of billions :)
Are you a psychiatrist as well? Geez! But you are right, I had this
problem ever since I started having chaotic discussions
with scientists. :-)
> Remember, put logic at the helm and subjugate your
> imagination to it.
Sorry, buddy. I navigate by imagination 'cause logos rather than
logic is my compass.
See ya
Stefan