Re: Constructive linguistics

David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:
> Sally wrote:
>
> <<
> We've talked before about the ludicrous fantasy of the "exact" map: one
> that is the size of the land it maps.  Wasn't that Borges who came up with
> that?
>  >>
>
> Indeed it was.  That was in _The Chronicles of Bustos Domecq_, if I
> remember rightly.
There's an exact map in Lewis Carroll's _Sylvie and Bruno Concluded_ as well:

    <<
      "What a useful thing a pocket-map is!" I remarked.
        "That's another thing we've learned from _your_ Nation," said Mein
       Herr, "map-making. But we've carried it much further than _you_. What
       do you consider the _largest_ map that would be really useful?"
        "About six inches to the mile."
        "Only _six inches!"_ exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six
      _yards_ to the mile. Then we tried a _hundred_ yards to the mile. And
       then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the
       country, on the scale of a _mile to the mile!"_
        "Have you used it much?" I enquired.
        "It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers
       objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the
       sunlight! So now we use the country itself, as its own map, and I
       assure you it does nearly as well."
    >>

Sounds about right.

	*Muke!
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