Saturday, 20 September 2008

Linguistics

An important new document by some of the world's leading linguists has declared that words are "imaginary." This, they admit, leaves them in a somewhat embarrassing situation, both linguistically and otherwise.
"It's hard to know what to say," said an academic.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Words may not seem imaginary, but if you take imagination away from words, they have little meaning; like ice in a glass, just waiting for the whisky.
That's how I imagine it anyway.

I am also reminded, of course, of the imaginary novels of A S Tinkerill (by far his best work I've always thought)

Anonymous said...

Emperor's New Clothes again. Philosophers drowning in their own mumbo jumbo.