Re: *dan-, illogical etc.

Stefan -

"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."
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As far as I know, chaos theory is a respected branch of science. Perhaps it has been unfortunately named, since it doesn't deal with chaos, it mostly deals with _order_: patterns, rhythms and recognizable, repetitive shapes; it is a way of describing these things mathematically. It has been used to describe cloud shapes, stock market curves, the rise and fall of animal populations etc. in a mathematical way - but I fail to see how it could be applied to linguistics or etymology. Could you give some examples that show how linguistics would benefit from chaos theory?
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Stefan -

"I am sorry, Hakon, if I have inadvertendly managed to add to your
confusion about synchronicity. This concept goes back some 70 years
when C.G.Jung (I am sure you have heard of him?) began to
investigate deeper layers of the unconscious psyche. He noticed a
phenomenon which he later decided to describe systematically as
synchronicty
(C.G.Jung: "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle",
Collected Works Vol. VIII). In the last 70 years a vast amount of
learned papers and books have been written on the subject expanding
on Jung's seminal ideas, but as this is obviously of no interest
either to you or to the list, I will
refrain from discussing it any further."
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Looking at Mansfield's web page (the one you recommended) didn't make me confused - quite the contrary :o)

I'm sorry if my reply was a little too rough - my intentions were not to make you shut up. Now and then I delurk with my own speculations and questions - feel free to treat them as roughly as you please!

Hakan