Re: Quack! on clines

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Tue, 23 Apr 1996 19:55:01 -0400

Ohhh! Is THAT how you use "cline"? - to refer to topological & not
typological description? - quantitative fuzz & not qualitative
clean lines? - That's it? So not every cline describes relations
between levels of a system.

- Judy

>
>I was using the cline notion to refer to descriptions which arrange
>phenomena on a scale, gradiently (technically topological) as opposed to
>descriptions which are categorical, treating phenomena as categorically
>different (in semiotics and linguistics, influenced by Saussure's notion
>of valeur - meaning as difference) - the latter categorical approach can
>be referred to as typological. Thus a topological/typological
>complementarity in how we view phenomena - as graded or categorically
>opposed. A few days back Jay wrote about this complementarity in terms
>of different perspectives on phenomena, noting that speakers can operate
>as if clines were categorical as far as making meaning was concerned.
>
>Jim Martin
>
>
>

Judy Diamondstone
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903

diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
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