Re: your mail

On Mon, 2 Jul 2001, claudio wrote:

>hi !
>i want to write about an observation i do not know if it is fully
>understandable, but hope to hear of your comments:
>
>when we describe things with one word we view them more as a "unit"
>than when we describe them with two or more words.
>the more words we have to use the less it is viewed as a unit,
>and the less it is used, and the less it is accepted by others.
>
>lets assume a),b),c),d) mean exactly the same only its spelling is
>different :
>
>a) "hes a person of honor"
>b) "hes a honorable person"
>c) "hes a honor-person"
>d) "hes a welati"  ("welati" has the same meaning like the three terms above)
>
>we notice from a) downto d) that the term is becoming more and more a
>unit in our minds.  at least the different from a) to d) is immense.
>
>its more a mental feeling.
>how to call this effect ? semantic-unification-effect ?
>
Beats me. I see them all as a "unit". To me "a" and "b"
are synonymous but stressing one part or the other.
Problem with "c" is that isn't really "good" English.
Problem with "d" is that English doesn't have a single
word (to my knowledge) that means "a" or "b". Assuming
for the sake of argument that "c" and "d" are English;
I'd still not see "d" as any more of a "unit" than "a";
since the "unit" is the man with his attributes.

Padraic.

>
>regards,
>c.s.
>