Tag Archives: metonymy

FTAC – Language, Islam, and ‘Cultural Metonymic Stability’

21 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology, Political Psychology, Politics, Religion

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Re. Language — https://www.amazon.com/Language-Cultural-Daniel-L-Everett/dp/0307473805 The author, Daniel Everett, challenges a substantial basis or claim in Chomsky’s theorizing about language.

My kernel for how languages work would be metonymy with paired, primary, and secondary sound/other signal associations. N. may want to catch this because it’s one of the elements involved in conflict within Islam that make winnowing the issue down to the “God Mob” (such may not be restricted to Islam but may be archaic elsewhere) so difficult. If one asks, for example, what the term “homosexual” means in terms of its resonance — what else does it call to mind? — we have several approaches to analyzing that. The science community might want to know and then refer to the incidence in behavior in nature x species and fit that data and theorizing about it with similar data compiled for Homo Sapiens sapiens.

The bohemian-creative communities, long on hedonism, unconsciously selfish or deep down exploitive and willful, give it a glance, give it a go, paint, write, dance, sing (“Take a Walk on the Wild Side”) about it, include it, dismiss it as trivial, so many other things considered, and move right on to their next scene. Dig? 🙂

And the religious refer to holy scripture and the logic of edict that must follow, which mentality went hard on the witches of Salem, not too many hundreds of years ago, and has visited similar villainy to . . . gays in an Orlando nightclub.

Bored, confused, dead-ended, invisible, still energetic and searching for answers — and then comes imam or speaker Farrokh Sekaleshfar who explains that the Muslim response to homosexuality is death, and it would be merciful to get it over with.

Now we have an issue: how stable is that message in Islamic jurisprudence and scholarship?

That’s really asking a question about metonymy within Arabic and within Islamic thought.

Then: how authoritative and how deep goes the distribution of that thought through the Ummah?

The Dhimmi and infidel on the defensive before such a cultural and political program may approach the same thought with external ideas, and chief among alternatives authoritative secular governance founded on reason undergirded by science and research and wedded to compassion, humility, inclusion, and tolerance.

Counterterrorism is a complex field, but in the language part, many recognize aspects of the talk (e.g., invoking the term “crusader west”) that key into signature by way of talk x behavioral change x foreign travel / association with Muslim Brotherhood figures x media obsessions x planning x arming.

In the west, wild poets alter the meaning of elements in language on an experimental basis, at least, and the public picks up and sustains what it finds “cool” — and, for the most part, the culture, the whole shebang, recapitulates itself into the modern English world.

In the Ummah, one still meets Farrokh Sekaleshfar sincerely plying old and frankly monstrous thought with authority. He’s got his hands full today (as a person of interest to western authorities), but what he’s drawn from in language has “cultural metonymic stability” — i.e., he’s not the only one talking that talk and pushing it into everyone’s future.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/06/12/omar-mir-seddique-mateen-known-to-the-fbi/ – 6/12/2016.

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N-Word Metonymy – Richards, Schlessinger in Context

15 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philology

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The Old Man in the Shoe / Had so many blogs / he didn’t know what to do!

🙂

What follows I’ve recycled from my first blog, and although Michael Richards is no longer under the hot light and blatant racism seems other than the talk of the town, Miley Cyrus has caught some heat recently for a remark she made about the judgment of septuagenarian Jewish record producers. Sideways, perhaps, this from 2010 — different incident, same ballpark — responds to that latest in the politics of the psychology of small differences.

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Nigger.

Want some more?

Kike. Wop. Spic. Kraut. Dink. Jap. Mick. Honky. Frog. Greaseball.

How’s that?

Context and intent count.

Just so no English language speaker is caught short or left behind while trading the dozens, The Racial Slur Database lists some 2,649 of these pejoratives.

Contempt, which is what epithets express, contribute to our defensive arsenal in language: they are the weapons we reach for when we are done with words and reason and, overall, ready to rumble.

Sometimes they come out when rumbling.

Comedian Michael Richards, who had played Cosmo Kramer on television’s Sienfeld, responded to hecklers while working a mike at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood with an out of control “N word” tirade. According to one of the hecklers, Kyle Doss, Richards, responding to a loud group ordering drinks, had said, “Look at the stupid Mexicans and black being loud up there,” before continuing his routine. Doss, according to Doss, had moments later said to him, “My friend doesn’t think you’re funny.” [1]

Richards then sunk his career while his hecklers made their fame calling him a cracker and a “fucking white boy” on their way away from the factory explosion.

It’s true Richards went off, but the heckler reposte suggests we’re all loaded with similar language and, most of the time, we’re just holding our fire.

It turns out we’re pretty good with one another and what goes on in the back of our head by way of examination, judgment, discrimination, and attitude — this applies as much to husbands and wives as well as, say, believers and kaffir — stays in the backs of our heads. As much helps account for our civility: we’re aware of our background static of mixed beliefs, emotions, and impulses, and, with rare exception, we not only contain ourselves but continuously work on ourselves, the better to live with ourselves as well as others.

Although I’ve stated this basis for fair transaction nicely, we may not have much choice about it, as we humans have going a naturally built-in and permanent encounter with conscience with an equally fierce taste for, oh, the horror, love and mutuality.

Last week, wildly popular talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger picked up on the term “nigger” after being fed it during this exchange with a caller:

Caller: I’m having an issue with my husband where I’m starting to grow very resentful of him. I’m black, and he’s white. We’ve been around some of his friends and family members who start making racist comments as if I’m not there or if I’m not black, and my husband ignores those comments, and it hurts my feelings. And he acts like —

Schlessinger: Well can you give me an example of a racist comment? ‘Cause sometimes people are hypersensitive. So tell me what’s — give me two good examples of racist comments.

Caller: Okay. Last night — good example — we had a neighbor come over, and this neighbor — when every time he comes over, it’s always a black comment. It’s, “Oh, well, how do you black people like doing this?” And, “Do black people really like doing that?” And for a long time, I would ignore it. But last night, I got to the point where it –

Schlessinger: I don’t think that’s racist.

Caller: Well, the stereotype . . .

Schlessinger: I don’t think that’s racist. No, I think that . . .

Caller: (unintelligible)

Schlessinger: No, no, no. I think that’s — well, listen, without giving much thought, a lot of blacks voted for Obama simply ’cause he was half-black. Didn’t matter what he was gonna do in office, it was a black thing. You gotta know that. That’s not a surprise. Not everything that somebody says — we had friends over the other day; we got about 35 people here — the guys who were gonna start playing basketball. I was going to go out and play basketball. My bodyguard and my dear friend is a black man. And I said, “White men can’t jump; I want you on my team.” That was racist? That was funny.

Caller: How about N-word? So, the N-word’s been thrown around . . .

Schlessinger: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nigger, nigger, nigger.

Caller: That isn’t —

Schlessinger: I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it’s a horrible thing, but when black people say it, it’s affectionate. It’s very confusing. Don’t hang up. I want to talk to you some more. Don’t go away. I’m Dr. Laura Schlessinger, I’ll be right back . . . .

Schlessinger: I’m Dr. Laura Schlessinger, talking to Jade. What did you think about during the break, by the way?

Caller: I was a little caught back by the N-word that you spewed out, I have to be honest with you. But my points is, race relations . . .

Schlessinger: Oh, then I guess you don’t watch HBO or listen to any black comedians.

Caller: But that doesn’t make it right.

Schlessinger: Yeah, I think you have too much sensitivity . . .

Caller: So it’s okay to say “nigger”?

Schlessinger: and not enough sense of humor.

Caller: It’s okay to say that word?

Schlessinger: It depends how it’s said.

Caller: Is it okay to say that word? Is it ever okay to say that word?

Schlessinger: It’s — it depends on how it’s said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it’s okay.”

Caller: But you’re not black. They’re not black. My husband is white.

Schlessinger: Oh, I see. So, a word is restricted to race. Got it. Can’t do much about that.

Caller: I can’t believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out the “nigger” word, and I hope everybody heard it.

Schlessinger: I didn’t spew out the “nigger” word.

Caller: You said, “nigger,” “nigger,” “nigger.”

Schlessinger: Right, I said that’s what you hear.

Caller: Everybody heard it.

Schlessinger: Yes, they did.

Caller: I hope everybody heard it.

Schlessinger: They did, and I’ll say it again —

Caller: So what makes it okay for you to say the word?

Schlessinger: And I’ll say it again — nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger is what you hear on HB –

Caller: So what makes it –

Schlessinger: Why don’t you let me finish a sentence?

Caller: okay.

Schlessinger: Don’t take things out of context. Don’t double N — NAACP — me.

I’ve transcribed from a CNN tape posted at Primewriter in a piece by Emma James [2] and will claim fair use, for understanding the character of the discussion, the initiation of the charge of racism, and reading within context fairly requires observation of how the talk really went down.

Schlessinger has apologized to the broadcasting universe, but I’m not sure for what, as the discussion seems to have been about an epithet, not any person, and as for group, the same term has long been incorporated into art (if we care to validate it as such — click on the video “Eminem’s a Bitch” included in the “Other Reference” section below).

This is all just one kike’s opinion, of course.

For the record, rapper M&M’s white, and he’s got a successful song in “Nigga” [3] — and 50 Cent approved [4].

Epithets are not evil in themselves.

Like knives, they’re tools.

In camp, we may use them affectionately (“You old son of a bitch, you”); under pressure and angered, “Why you swine” (or “dirty kaffir Zionazi Yankee pig”); and in combat, well, sticks and stones do break bones, but at that stage, words may be the least of anyone’s problems.

Cited Reference

1. Wikipedia. “Michael Richards”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Richards

2. James, Emma. “Dr. Laura Schlessinger uses the N-word transcript of controversial call on race (video). Primewriter, August 13, 2010: http://primewriter.com/news-1246-headlines/?p=8859

3. Eminem. “Nigga.” Lyrics: http://www.lyricstime.com/eminem-nigga-lyrics.html

4. Youtube poster “maxamillionentco”. “50 Cent Approves of Eminem saying “Nigga.” Posted November 8, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4mu_ip2maw

Other Reference

Garron, Barry. “Dog used the N word? Here’s What to Do.” Past Deadline, November 2, 2007: http://www.pastdeadline.com/michael_richards/

Marikar, Sheila. “Critics: Dr. Laura’s Rant Reiterates N-Word Is Never OK: First Gays, Now Blacks: Anti-Defamation League, Paul Mooney Slam Dr. Laura Schlessinger for N-Word-Laced Rant.” ABC News, August 13, 2010: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/dr-laura-schlessinger-slammed-word-laced-rant/story?id=11394378

The Racial Slur Database: http://www.rsdb.org/

VerBruggen, Robert. “‘Cosmo Kramer’ actor uses racial epithet.” Robert’s Rationale, November 20, 2006: http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com/2006/11/cosmo-kramer-actor-uses-racial-epithet.html

Wikipedia. “Epithet”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithet

Wikipedia. “List of ethnic slurs”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

Youtube poster “mixedfeelins”. “Eminem’s A Bitch.” Posted January 21, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAadjZjk_Tg (love the last spoken words: “Don’t be hatin'”).

Youtube poster “meltdownvideo”. “Kramer Michael Richards Freaking Out Onstage.” Posted April 22, 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD9o52U4260

FTAC – Good, Evil, Language Metonymy and Social Grammar

04 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philology, Politics

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The science experiment preceding the comment involved measurements of attitude affected by first introducing participants to short collections of words that might have an impact on subsequent perception of other subjects.

I thought the science silly, actually, but it lent itself to the kernel, which at this point for me seems iterative.

The “priming” referred to in the article attaches to two fundamental concepts in the cultural perception of good and evil: language metonymy and social grammar. To delve into one may involve dipping into linguistics and poetry and the other wants for focus on the processing of cultural and social signals in infancy’s language acquisition period.

In essence, science still gives us a glimpse of what may be known empirically and religion becomes the mirror of cultural expression, imagination, and invention. “Good”, from such a clinical perspective, becomes what culture and language have become together across time for the set of constituent speakers.

Two enjoyable reference in this area: Daniel Everett’s Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes and Language: The Cultural Tool.

I cannot emphasize the idea too much that a romantic combat signals the poetic arrangement of symbols suspended in language and woven around the fighter’s own self-concept and image.

When one has cause to denote the pen mightier than the sword, doing so recognizes that good and evil, beauty and sophistry, guidance and misguidance involve the speech of either healthy or poisonous tongues and then an accurate or inaccurate assessment of states of affairs.

*

We humans don’t live through our organics: rather, we live with them and at times, this with age especially so, barely tolerate them; where we actually live is within the mouth-ear-mind-heart system that we use to tell ourselves about ourselves and others and the world.

If we’re to find greatness and heroism within ourselves and our ranks, it’s in that vessel woven out of strings of words fashioned like steel; if we’re to be disheartened or humbled, it may be through the deformation or shattering of those same strings, and then perhaps for their being either too rigid to withstand a little pressure or too gimp with receiving a load of confusion to keep their own best form.

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FTAC – Metonymy – “Zaani” and “Rape”

05 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philology, Psychology

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Is everyone familiar with the term “metonymy”?

I use it in regard to “weighted relationships” between nouns such that the term “rape” calls also to mind “force” and that concept is reinforced in turn by its (potentially statistical) relationship with dominance and humiliation.

IF “Zaani” is intended to reference forced sexual submission (“rape”) but most closely relates to “adultery” and “fornication” (social conditions, not individual experiential concerns), it may then absent — with consequent legal and social realities congruent with this hypothesis — the consideration of humiliation, i.e., the erasure or taking of the victim’s dignity.

From the above, there may open a great conversation about the absence or centrality of the concept “dignity of man” — of each member of family, clan, tribe, and nation — as embedded in each of the world’s separable languages.

“Kavod HaBriyot” seems to be the Hebrew term — it’s new to me — but with the “People of the Book” recognized elsewhere, that too might be worth a visit.

I’ll copy this to my blog as the conversation so perfectly fits “conflict, culture, language, psychology.”

When I reach this point in specialization, the foaming fringe of an ocean featuring for currents engineering and related research interests in artificial intelligence and cybernetics and humanist interest in linguistics and poetry, I find I long for both independent funding and project integration.

🙂

While I may wait to hear the echo on that, possibly forever, as much would seem a critical corner within the intellectual space in which I live.

This is the realm of art, the “glass beads game”, the continuous manipulation of symbols and mind to beautify and ennoble experience and, as a natural behavior, to channel through expression a glimpse of the divine in nature and the universe.

Every human does this a little bit in self-concept and organization; poets may do it a little more and with reach to others.

Not all conflicts live so in the head — some really do have to do with natural and industrial resource allocations — but cultural and religious wars do as they would seem inseparable from “habits of mind” formed of particles drawn in language and repeated and inculcated throughout each culture-and-language system community wide.

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FTAC – A Note on Anti-Semitic Bigotry and Sophistry

06 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology, Psychology

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11/6/2012/1212H

J. — wade into academe and you wade into a flood tide of anti-Semitic ranting.

What do you want to do about it?

Report it to CAMERA, Honest Reporting?

Kick it around in the peace groups?

For any close reader, the sophistry shows up in the first paragraph: “Just recall the final TV debate as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney competed to prove who could pander more to the pro-Israel side while treating Palestinians as if they didn’t exist.”

This is well-recognized false witness and slander, but because it targets a people and a state — the Jewish People and Israel — there are no legal remedies. The cultural remedy is to make ourselves honestly known through ourselves around the world.

More we cannot do.

God, although I know you don’t believe, or Nature, and that should suffice, inspired in us a great mission in a world much larger than ourselves, and we have been on it for 5,000 years — perhaps I should say only 5,000 years — and we have eased, fully, close to 3 billion people to monotheism, not that 2.85 billion give a rip about thanking us for their better tracks.

That, of course, is their problem.

I may publish this on BackChannels, it makes me so angry and, as the Jew-baiting writer might calculate, a little bit helpless as to how to approach the repair of this form of bigotry and hate.  Such behavior in language stems from a deeply embedded social grammar — it is not a reasoning behavior but one rigidly set in attitudes and emotions — acquired by children in their earliest years, including probably some weeks in the womb with their ears turned on.

FTAC – A Remark About Language

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology

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What holds us together, improbably, may be probability in relation to language behavior that involves essentially repeated sounds that  develop shared symbolic meaning and exhibit more or less stability across the life of a language culture.

For me, all avenues in linguistics lead back to metonymy and the update, development, weighting, and evolution of clusters of behavior involving words, functional grammar, and, most important for our interests here, social grammar.  We’re not stuck with either the Red Queen or Humpty Dumpty, i.e., the development of meaning may have predictable and stable qualities, but there seems much that is accidental and arbitrary in the development of culture and, by way of language, shared cultural perception.

Near unquestioned familiarity with a primary language affords a depth in humor and intuition generally unavailable in a second language. As instruments playing with words, we may be incredibly fine tuned, but that tuning depends on the continuation of conventions, habits, and practices — the more deeply held the assemblies, the less energy required to revisit and re-validate their adventageous qualities — any part of which may be subject to cultural and linguistic evolution.

I’ve never had much respect for the deconstructionists, their drift demonstrated so much more actively by poets who, depending on their mien, for better or worse, rearrange symbolic language relationships in the heads of those reading or hearing their inventions.