White horses and orphan colts

[robinturner]

On the recent discussion of radial categories (see replies to Oops, I did it again), what do the linguists/philosophers out there make of these statements attributed to Huizi (a leading member of the "School of Names"):

"A white horse is not a horse."
"An orphan colt has never had a mother."

Correction (28/6/01)

Oops, that wasn't Huizi, it was Gong-sun Long (the other main person in that particular school). Huizi (also known as Hui Shi) was the guy who said things like "The heavens are as low as the earth; mountains are on the same level as marshes."

Comments

Re: oh my god. it's cog sci 101 all over again.

[solri.livejournal.com]

I don't see why there shouldn't be a category FAKE, but it would be a pretty screwy one, since it would have the defining feature (yes I do believe in defining features!) of not being a member of whichever other category is given or implied.

As for the Russian example, I don't speak Russian either, but I know that a similar thing applies in Chinese, e.g. "red" is a stative verb, not an adjective, so to express "The book is red" (no pun intended) you would just say

shu hong

If you put in the equivalent of "is" and say shu shi hong you're saying something like "The book is the same thing as the colour red" (though you can for emphasis say shu shi hong de - the book is the same as a red thing).

I assume the implication is "This is what they say, therefore this is how they THINK" which I think is hogwash!

How can what they say not be what they think? Do you think there is some kind of mental proto-language from which we translate into verbal language (like Pinker's idea of "mentalese")?

Re: oh my god. it's cog sci 101 all over again.

[ex-fauxpas266.livejournal.com]

I assume the implication is "This is what they say, therefore this is how they THINK" which I think is hogwash!

How can what they say not be what they think? Do you think there is some kind of mental proto-language from which we translate into verbal language (like Pinker's idea of "mentalese")?

A ha ha ha! Kristian reminds me of me two or so years ago. I can't even remember exactly what Robin and I were talking about. I was depressed about "THE THING" and some weird discussion ensued from that. Robin was ALL bustin' out with his cognitive semantics, and I was resisting it tooth and nail, if I recall correctly!

But then I took classes with George Lakoff who proceeded to brainwash me. Yay! JOIN US, KRISTIAN, JOIN US!

Can you say "Condescending"????

[kristian.livejournal.com]

Never! You're not my father!

Re: Can you say

[ex-fauxpas266.livejournal.com]

(measured monotone, glazed look in eyes) But it's so much better here on the other side ...

Re: oh my god. it's cog sci 101 all over again.

[kristian.livejournal.com]

How can what they say not be what they think? Do you think there is some kind of mental proto-language from which we translate into verbal language (like Pinker's idea of "mentalese")?

Yes! I am so certain of it.