RE: words, words, words.......YES....a salute to definitions

[Myron Tribus <mtribus@home.com>]

Jeff Worthington's post raises an important question, which has been 
the central focus of people interested in General Semantics.  Indeed, 
the society devoted to this topic is still very active.  This group 
began in the 1930's afgter the publication of Korzybsky's book, 
"Science and Sanity" which investigated not only the impact of the 
words we use but also the STRUCTURE of the language.  Alas, reading 
Korzybski is very difficulty, so that much of what he had to say has 
never penetrated general society.  Hayakawa, his disciple, has 
written more understandably, but in the opinion of some of 
Korzybsky's follower's, went too far and lost some of the essentials.

I prefer to diswtinguish between the use of operational definitions, 
which are developed so that two people may communicate with less 
ambiguity, and the deliberate introduction of words and phrases used 
to confuse.  We have seen the word "Quality" abused by advertisers so 
that now it has lost much of its meaning.  The phrase "weasel words" 
was coined in an earlier century to describe how people had used 
phrases devoid of meaning, in the manner whereby a weasel sucks the 
contents out of an egg and leaves the shell intact.

Myron Tribus,  350 Britto Terrace,  Fremont, CA 94539
Ph:510 651 3641  Fax: 510 656 9875   e-mail: mtribus@home.com
There is no such thing as an immaculate perception.  What you see 
depends upon what you thought before you looked.
===================================================================