Re: reification

[Joel Rauber <Joel_Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>]

Leigh has written in two posts (in part):
> I guess I should apologize for letting my privately intended note slip
> into the list. It wasn't harmful, at least.

No harm done.

> "Neologize" is a word I have used, but in this case it was
> used first by someone else - Joel, I think - in that thread.
> Is it in the dictionary? I'd no idea. I've neologized myself
> in the past, my favorite contribution being "empiry", a term
> I use for the combination of experimental and observational
> scientific results, as opposed to "theory". I find the word
> very useful, well worth defining when it is needed in a
> discussion.

neologize is, of course, itself a neology.

> "Extant"? What's the big deal? Surely that word is in the
> tenth grade vocabulary.

I'm rather afraid that Leigh is being overly optimistic here.

> If you'll look back at the drivel I've been dishing out here
> since the cretaceous era you will find that these words are
> part of my everyday vocabulary. I'm glad you've got an on-
> line dictionary and that you use it. I use paper dictionaries
> and I love language. I think using English with a somewhat
> greater dynamic range than that found in "USA Today" is both
> uplifting and refreshing. I do have to exhort my students to
> "Look it up!" from time to time, something I learned from
> Julius Sumner Miller of which I heartily approve. I think it
> is good for science students to open a book once in a while.

Hear Hear!!!
I suffered as a youth from parents who frequently told me to "look it up!"
And also didn't dumb down their vocabulary when talking to their kids. Its a
wonderful legacy and one teachers should bestow to their students.

I love language as well, which may explain my propensity to make perverse
neologies.

> My students also know that I will gladly stop and define any
> word they don't understand while I am lecturing, though they
> have not done so this semester in either of my classes. I
> firmly believe that in university, even teaching science
> students, I ought to be using the English language at more
> than the tenth grade level. They pay money for these courses;
> they deserve the real thing. Many of us may not realize that
> students of the arts are assumed to be improving their
> vocabularies; why should science students not also improve
> theirs?

Again a hardy AMEN.

BTW I'm declining to comment any further (to the relief of everyone I'm
sure) on the meaning of the word "reification".   ;-)

Joel