Re: [xmca] fetishism | word meaning

[Tony Whitson <twhitson@UDel.Edu>]

I clipped the wrong line from Martin's post in that last message. I meant 
the Dickinson verse in reponse to the line that now appears below from 
Martin.

In Dickinson's verse, what's not timeless is not merely the meaning that a 
word does as a lexical unit in a language (i.e., in the philological 
sense), but even in a specific utterance the word spoken continues 
meaning, as it continues living, non-timelessly.

On Sun, 1 May 2011, Tony Whitson wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Apr 2011, Martin Packer wrote:

> For LSV word-meaning is not timeless. It changes over time; he didn't 
study philology for nothing!

> A word is dead
>      When it is said
>    Some say.
> I say it just
> Begins to live
>   That day.
>
>       --Emily Dickinson
>
> I find it helpful to think of meaning as something that words do -- not 
> something they contain, convey, etc.

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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