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

mofos

[ex-fauxpas266.livejournal.com]

Also, mofo is passe among speakers of U.S. English. A more up-to-date equivalent would be something like, "Check it -- Big Bro's WACK y'all."

Re: mofos

[solri.livejournal.com]

"Wack"?? Since I don't listen to rap, my main source on American slang is South Park, but I suspect that there they frequently make up argot just to see if it will catch on. I mean, does anyone really say "That's absolutely tits" to mean that it's really good? (There again, in Britain, "It's the dog's bollocks" is actually a compliment!)

Actually, I have a couple of questions arising from Seinfeld.

1. Is "step off" the same as "back off"?
2. Does "I'm down" mean "I'm in"? And what kind of kooky image schema does that come from?

Re: mofos

[ex-fauxpas266.livejournal.com]

Wack, I think, originated in AAVE but is now understood as a slang term by pretty much all young Americans.

I've never heard "That's absolutely tits"; nor would that make much sense to me if I heard it! I don't watch "South Park," though!

Yeah, "step off" is the same as "back off." Incidentally, if you "step to" someone, you're challenging him, like, trying to instigate a fight.

"I'm down" means something like "I'm in" or "I'm hip to that." Like, "I'm down with cognitive linguistics" means that you know something about it, that you're interested in it. Or as a friend of mine jokingly said to me, "I'm down with the 65 too!" meaning that she took the same bus I did. I would imagine "I'm down" is related to "get down."