4.0579 Responses: Dreams; Plurals; Sources (3/73)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 10 Oct 90 16:34:02 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0579. Wednesday, 10 Oct 1990.
(1) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 90 09:07 EST (20 lines)
From: Norman Miller <NMILLER@TRINCC>
Subject: Language learning and dreaming
(2) Date: Wed, 03 Oct 90 11:01:56 BST (19 lines)
From: DEL2@phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [4.0556 Words: Plurals ... (4/100)]
(3) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 90 08:32:48 MDT (34 lines)
From: Skip Knox <DUSKNOX@IDBSU>
Subject: Re: 4.0562 Counting Texts (1/43)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 90 09:07 EST
From: Norman Miller <NMILLER@TRINCC>
Subject: Language learning and dreaming
Marc Bregman's fascinating dreams turned on a switch in my head. Thanks
entirely to the fact that I've switched workrooms with my spouse and and
have therefore books at hand that I haven't seen or thought of in many
years, I have fished out the following from the Revue Francaise de
Psychanalyse, vol.X no.1, 1938: "Jeu de mots hebraiques. Une langue
nouvellement acquise peut-elle devenir la langue de l'inconscient?" The
paper tells of polyglot dreams including Russian, Polish, German, Arabic
as well as Hebrew. One involves dreams about a mouse, but since the
Yiddish for mouse is close to the Hebrew for luck...(Remember how we
used to love that sort of thing? Ou sont les innocents d'antan?) The
author, chers lecteurs, is Emmanuel Velikovsky. As Casey Stengel said,
you can look it up.
N. Miller
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------33----
Date: Wed, 03 Oct 90 11:01:56 BST
From: DEL2@phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [4.0556 Words: Plurals ... (4/100)]
Perhaps it's now old hat (do you understand that on t'other side of the
water?) but a couple of interesting plural singulars worthy of note
are 'news' (uniformly plural as far as I can see in 14 Century and on)
and 'dice'. And in a recent posting to HUMANIST (I devoutly hope
tongue-in-cheek) was the memorable phrase
> but there's a twain that doesn't quite meet.
And I'm struck by an awful thought. Should I have said
>but a couple of interesting plural singulars worthy of note IS ... ?
Of course in almost any newspaper one finds not mere uncertainty
about whether words like 'government' should be given singular or
plural verbs, but constant vacillation between the two.
Regards, Douglas de Lacey.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------41----
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 90 08:32:48 MDT
From: Skip Knox <DUSKNOX@IDBSU>
Subject: Re: 4.0562 Counting Texts (1/43)
Kessler's observations about sources is worth a response (though I
suspect mine might not be the only one). For those in literature
perhaps such an attitude as his is possible, but not in history. It
would be a grave mistake to force my students to learn about early
modern Germany by reading only primary sources; just as well say they
ought to learn about the Mojave Desert by wandering about in it. Maps
are better.
Moreover, Kessler exhibits a bit of discipline-specific myopia when he
speaks of books. In history we deal also with not-books: archival
sources, parish registers, archaeological evidence, coins, inscriptions,
art, architecture -- even for the medieval historian the body of
relevant and important material is overwhelming. It's one of the
reasons why I snicker when I hear people moaning about information
overload, a truly modern and specious bit of worrying.
That said, he's made me stop to think a bit. Perhaps it would be a
worthwhile exercise to go through what I know of the literature in my
field (secondary literature, now, mind you) and decide which ones are fit
companions for retirement. I could keep a list. With each new book I
read I could debate whether it was a worthy addition to the list. If a
book isn't worth taking to Arizona, perhaps it's not worth inflicting on
my students either. . . .
Ellis 'Skip' Knox, Ph.D.
Historian, Data Center Associate
Boise State University DUSKNOX@IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU
Boise, Idaho 83725
(208) 385-1315