[xmca] words meaning in language activity

[Tony Whitson <twhitson@UDel.Edu>]

words ARE words only in languages

language activity is pragmatically situated

these general principles are long-established and well understood -- which 
is not to say that there could not be anybody who would want to expound on 
"words" and "meaning" without wanting to know about what has been long 
understood by people who've investigated such things seriously.

anyway, I recall an incident that might provide an effective (certainly 
dramatic) example of meaning (and words) not just being matters of "vocal 
sounds."

This happened in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Probably everyone then old enough 
and living in Japan also heard about it; so David Ke might remember from 
where he was, and David Ki certainly remembers.

It was the evening of October 31 -- Halloween, the evening before All 
Saints Day on the Christian calendar -- when young children in the US 
dress up in costumes for "trick or treat" night, and older kids dress up 
in costumes for halloween parties.

That evening, a high-school exchange student from Japan was dressed in a 
white tuxedo -- a costume based on the John Travolta charater in Saturday 
Night Fever. Apparently he got confused about how to find his classmate's 
house for the halloween party he was going to.

He started walking up a driveway, presumably to ask directions if this was 
not the right house. A women in the house got scared seeing this 
white-tuxedo-wearing teenager walking up the driveway. (Later she 
explained that she was scared because the boy had darker skin than hers.)

She screamed for her husband. Her husband grabbed his gun (I don't 
remember if it was a shotgun or a rifle) and took it out to the garage, at 
the end of the driveway. From inside the grarage, the man yelled 
"Freeze!." When the boy continued walking, the man shot him dead.

Although he didn't live to testify, we have no reason to think that the 
boy did not hear those "vocal sounds." ( and chances are that the boy did 
well in science classes, and could use the word "freeze" in other contexts 
with no trouble at all).

Tony Whitson
UD School of Education
NEWARK  DE  19716

twhitson@udel.edu
_______________________________

"those who fail to reread
 are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
                  -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
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