Re: Terminology defs

Well, yes, but there are a lot of diferent ideas out there about who
is doing the legislating -- a Language Organ in our heads,
not-specifically-linguistic cognitive features, a societal consensus,
functional practicalities, and so on.


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Ed just stopped by to see what condition his condition was in.
                   edheil@postmark.net
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Daniel Seriff wrote:

> Bryan Maloney wrote:
>
> > "Rule" implies a legislator--it's teleological.  In biology, we've
> > stopped using "law" and "rule" whenever possible.  Instead, we refer to
> > "trait" or "characteristic", far less teleological.  Unless one is
> > referring specifically to a system wherein there *is* a "legislator" of
> > some sort, "rule" or "law" is unnecessarily teleological and
proscribptive
> > language.  "Trait" does not carry such baggage.
>
> If you think about it, language does call for such teleological
> language. *We* are the legislators and arbiters of the language. *We*
> come up with the rules. Language is, in many respects, a construct of
> society. Biology is different in that there is no such legislation going
> on (unless you believe in that kind of thing ;).
>
> --
> Dan Seriff <microtonal@...>
>
> "Mozart is just God's way of making the rest of us feel inferior."
>         - David Barber
>