LINGUIST List 6.949

Fri Jul 7 1995

Misc: Chomsky, Ling in science fiction, Banning of German

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Celso Alvarez Caccamo, Re: 6.923, Sum: Chomsky on letting the theory choose
2. "Al'n", Re: 6.841, Ling in science fiction
3. "Loren A. Billings", Re: 6.933, Misc: English only, A footnote on banning of German

Message 1: Re: 6.923, Sum: Chomsky on letting the theory choose

Chomsky's optimism about "letting the theory decide" about
unclear cases of grammaticality sharply contrasts with the
view proposed by Baudrillard (in _L'autre par lui meme_)
as to the role of theory in forcing reality and in defining
us as theory practitioners. I'm traslating from the Spanish
version:

"The status of theory could only be one of challenging reality.
Or, rather, the relationship between the two is one of a mutual
challenge. For, undoubtedly, also the real is nothing but a
challenge to theory -- not an objective state of affairs, but a
radical frontier for analysis, beyond which nothing obeys theory
or beyond which theory no longer has anything to say. But also
theory is only made to disobey reality, and it constitutes its
unreachable frontier. Irreconciliation between theory and
the real: a corollary of the irreconciliation between
subjects and their own goals. All attempts at reconciliation
are deceiving and are doomed to failure."

Celso Alvarez-Caccamo

Message 2: Re: 6.841, Ling in science fiction

In this vein see Italo Calvino's cosmicomics.

Message 3: Re: 6.933, Misc: English only, A footnote on banning of German

A brief comment on on banning German in the US Midwest during wartime:
Kurt Vonnegut's semi-autobiographical _Slapstick_ mentions how his German-
speaking family self-censored the German out of their speech, music, etc.

Loren Billings
billingsprinceton.edu
billingspucc.bitnet