Re: [xmca] a minus times a plus

[Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

The translation from math discourse to discourse discourse will almost
certainly help, David.
The teen's dad was very clear about a double negative being a positive.
"Not not caring=caring" but that understanding does not cross
discourse.representational domains.

I thought Joplin's line was "freedom's just another word for nothing left to
lose."  Hard to remember
stuff from the prior millenium.

mike

PS -- Hmmm, or was that something about the freedom of necessity from yet
another prior millenium?

PPS-- I'll give your version a try. First chance I get,
mike

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 7:00 PM, David Kellogg <vaughndogblack@yahoo.com>wrote:

>
> Mike:
>
> Try the following sentences on your teenager. (Sing where possible!)
>
> a) It's worth it.
> b) It's not worth it.
> c) It's not not worth it.
> d) It's not worth nothing.
> e) Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free (Kris Kristofferson version)
> f) Nothing ain't worth nothing hon' if it ain't free. (Janis Joplin
> version)
> (Thanks to an imperfectly anonymous reviewer for MCA for straightening out
> my discography for the last two examples.)
>
> See if he can explain WHICH sentences mean something is worth it and which
> ones mean it's not worth it. Of course, this IS related to the notion of a
> negative operating on a positive to produce a negative.
>
> But how to explain the relationship? I think it's not that systems of
> negation in language are mathematical; it's that systems of negation in
> MATHEMATICS tend to the linguistic. That's the way ALL higher psychological
> processes work.
>
> David Kellogg
> Seoul National University of Education
>
>
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca