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Re: A question and introduction

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 12, 2002, 10:35
Wesley Parish scripsit:

> Of course, one of Tauranga's major features is Mount Maunganui. "Mount" is > redundant; "Maunga" is Te Reo Maori for Mountain; and furthermore the full > Maori name is Mauao te maunga. So what it is called is not its name, what > its name is called is another thing altogether, etc (read the appropriate > part of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" or "Alice Behind the > Lookingglass" for the actual mind-fuck.)
Well, what it is called *is* one of its names. Things don't come into the world trailing names ready-made; a name demands a naming context. BTW, the phenomenon you describe is common in the world's languages: In "Missisippi River", the Fox morphemes are "big river", and in "Gobi Desert" it's "great desert". -- John Cowan <jcowan@...> http://www.reutershealth.com I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith. --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

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Clint Jackson Baker <litrex1@...>Natlang redundancies WASRe: A question and introduction