Quack! Quack! Quack! (2)

Francoise Herrmann (fherrmann who-is-at igc.apc.org)
Mon, 15 Apr 1996 19:06:17 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Robin, Hi everyone, *(is a duck)? I thought of something invertionally
proportional between langue/parole and what we need to account for
shared knowledge and differences. With "langue" at the cognitive level
and "parole" at the "socio-individual" level. "Langue" as the generative
system (factoring in perhaps the Whorfian hypothesis) and "parole" as
the system is realized by differnt subjects in interaction. You see
I am so much interested in Ana's question because to me it poses a really
important issue, namely how does one account for sameness and difference.
The same issue comes up in lots of places for me. For example, talking with
a micro-biologist she tells me that with DNA, the blue print for human life
much time is spent trying to figure out how it is that in fact we have
different people. And to me I wonder, yes there are so many common,
shared ways and yet each one of us is different. So how to explain
differences, how to speak of an individual that is socially constructed
without obliterating the fact that each subject interacts differently
with an environement. The fiction of the task at hand and the concrete
reality perhaps only retrospectively. Yes, Ana's question somehow
really converges a whole set of issues for which I don't seem to be able
to find a satisfactory answer. So "langue" as a minimum shared with
the highest constraints and "parole" as a maximum allowing for
subjectification. Ok on the surface but messy still (taking colors as an
example....)

*(must be a duck)

Francoise
Francoise Herrmann
fherrmann who-is-at igc.org