Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 01:12:56 CST

From: "Donald M. Lance" ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.BITNET

Subject: Words



A week or so ago, someone asked if we believe in words.

Sure, I believe in words. My literary colleagues believe in words. They

claim that we think in words. That we remember in words. That we build

social bridges with words. That we build highway bridg (no no no; gotta

scratch that one).

Where are those words that we have access to. We learn them. Where do we

learn them? They're "out there" avaialble to all of us who speak the language.

Some of us are much better than others in reaching "out there" and selecting

just the right words to do what really works well in personal interaction,

in poems, in fiction.

Out there where? Wel, I suppose in the ether.

Yeah, that's where words would be if we reach "out there" and pull them into

our subconscious so that we can do everything we do with words.

Yeah, that's where they are. In the ether.

Alongside phlogiston.

Yeah, that's it! That's it!

That explains the fire in the bellies of the great orators.

DMLance