Date: Sat, 15 Nov 1997 17:19:30 -0500

From: "David W. Pass" Beatfarm[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Re: Double negatives (was one as a pronoun?)



Dear Ms. Flannigan,

I still beg to differ. You say that "language is language." Is this to

indicate that you believe it to be unchanging. I should hope not. Neither

am I meaning to imply that logic and language are in any way equivilant.

Indeed logic is developed through language but yet language is also

developed through logic. The two are quite inextricable. Are you aware of

Semiotics? This is the study of signs. Words are signs that describe ideas.

Ideas describe reality. So, any word can be described using an axiom of

formal logic called "hypothetical syllogism": if P then Q/if Q then

R/therefore R. This does not say that "logic is language" or that we should

adopt logic as our language. It simply says that -- because language can be

described by logic -- language is logical. Likewise, because logic can be

described by language, logic is linguistic. The two are very much

intermeshed. That is inarguable, and that is all I meant to imply.



Dave Pass