Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 15, No. 216.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: lachance@chass.utoronto.ca (Francois Lachance) (29)
Subject: Runcibles
[2] From: lachance@chass.utoronto.ca (Francois Lachance) (15)
Subject: What is Text? -- URL
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 10:18:08 +0100
From: lachance@chass.utoronto.ca (Francois Lachance)
Subject: Runcibles
Willard,
I was re-reading some material from the Renear-McGann exchange organzied a
few years back by Susan Hockey (ACHALLC99 "What is Text?")
[Unfortunately, the position statements no longer appear to be accessible
on the WWW.]
The statements with their nominalist/realist thematics bring to mind an
entryfrom Mark Morton's _Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary
Curiosities_ (Winnipeg: Bain and Cox, 1996).
<cite>
runcible spoon
In 1971, Edward Lear, a Victorian artist and author, wrote a book of
nonsense verse that included this passage from a poem call "The Owl and
the Pussy-Cat": "They dined on mince, and slices of quince, which they are
with a runcible spoon." Over the next twenty years, other runcible items
appeared in Lear's poetry, including a runcible goose, a runcible cat, a
runcible hat, a runcible wall, and one more runcible spoon. In all these
poems, the meaning of the word _runcible_ is unknown: Lear invented it out
of thin air simply because he liked the sound of it. In the early
twentieth century, however, someone bestowed the word upon an actual piece
of cutlery used to serve appetizers -- a spoon whose bowl ends in three
curved prongs, the last of which has a cutting edge."
</cite>
I don't quite agree with Morton's characterization of invention out of
thin air -- phonological systems make the air thick.
I was wondering if in the history of humanities computing there have not
been "runcible spoons". Any candidates for what is a type of ante-grail?
--
Francois Lachance, Scholar-at-large
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~lachance/ivt.htm
per Interactivity ad Virtuality via Textuality
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 10:18:55 +0100
From: lachance@chass.utoronto.ca (Francois Lachance)
Subject: What is Text? -- URL
Willard,
In a previous message I expressed doubt as to the continuing accessibility
of the documentation relating to an important exchange in the field of
humanities computing. I have managed to find the set of documents and
hope others will consult them. The URL:
http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/Susan_Hockey/ACHALLC99.htm
I am particulary intrigued as to what subscribers to Humanist might think
about the claim that appears to be advanced by McGann at the time that
markup models text as determinate hierarchy and not as recursive
network. The distinction doesn't seem to hold since markup can provide a
system of interlocking pointers.
Intrigued.
--
Francois Lachance, Scholar-at-large
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~lachance/ivt.htm
per Interactivity ad Virtuality via Textuality
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