Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)
- From: "Franz Gnaedinger" <frgn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 29 Sep 2006 02:04:23 -0700
Life and language, part 1, the meaning
of life
We are a part of life and can't really look
at life from the outside. Our individual life
may follow a long equation whose last
term we don't know ... Yes, I am leaving
the realm of the sciences. From now on
I rely on experience, intuition and belief.
What is the meaning of life?
To contribute to life
In past August I got ill and thought my days
were over. Do you know what counts in the
end? What one did for others.
Life, one may say, depends on the living
beings. The language of life may then be
a changing tonus on the level of microbia
and plants, feelings on the level of animals
and human beings, especially feelings in an
existential situation such as falling in love,
being seriously challenged, facing the end.
When I was ill I made exercises, using my
will and motivation to survive. At the same
time I prepared myself to die. It wasn't
fearful, I felt kind of easy and consoled -
as if life thanked me for my contributions.
Contribute to life
in the way you can
and as well as you can
Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch
Life and language, part 2, what is life?
In the physical sense, life is an organization
of matter far from the thermodynamical
equilibrium. Not all of matter can turn into
living matter, which is why life occurs in
single beings. As dissipative structures,
living beings need plenty of energy. They
solve their energy problem by feeding on
each other, or on each other's products,
and, in the case of plants, by producing
sugar with the help of sunlight. We humans
may one day be able to copy photosynthesis
on an industrial scale, and perhaps even
to produce meat with the help of genetic
engineering, thus providing food for an
ever increasing human population without
killing animals.
Life appears in organized form. We observe
bonds everywhere, even between predators
and prey. Lions get meat by hunting antelopes,
and the populations of antelopes are kept in
good health by the lions. According to the
now widely accepted weak version of the
Gaia hypothesis, life on earth forms a system
which created and maintains the biosphere.
The strong version even claims that life on
earth forms kind of a super-organism.
Language plays a key role in the organization
of life. Here again my definition from 1974/75:
Language is the means of getting help, support
and understanding from those we depend upon
in one way or another --- and every means of
getting help, support and understanding may
be called language, on whatever level of life
it occurs.
Life and language, part 1, what is language?
what is special about human language?
ideas and insights from 1974/75
Language is the means of getting help, support
and understanding from those we depend upon
in one way or another --- and every means of
getting help, support and understanding may
be called language, on whatever level of life
it occurs.
What is special about human life? the use of
artificial things. What is special about human
language? the use of words that name artificial
things and make us see a world full of objects:
cup, jar, table, floor, wall, window, garden,
fence, road, car, pole, flag ... apple, tree,
bird, hill, sky, cloud, wind, light, nature,
human being, life, body and soul ...
Humans succeded in building tents, huts
and houses, and saw the sky as a giant
baldachin, or an overarching vault. If one
can form animals in clay, and carve human
figurines from wood or stone, one can also
name animals and human beings. A statue
may be very true to nature and appear most
lively, but there will always be something
missing when compared with a real human
being - what's missing is called life, as if
it were a thing of its own. Proportions of
a figurine evoke the way organs and
members of the living being cooperate,
how all elements of life go together, and
the word for this cooperation is psyche,
soul. Using a band you can tie things
together, while the word and joins words,
German Bund und (you can find similar
words in ancient Greek and in Latin).
Words are sets, while sentences can be
understood as overlapping sets, one of them
belonging to the word be. Or sentences can
be given as equations, which can then be
transformed into more specified objects:
overlapping sets: ball be round
sentence: The ball is round.
equation: the ball - is - a round one
object: the round ball
overlapping sets: ball be rolling
sentence: The ball rolls.
equation: the ball - is - a rolling one
object: the rolling ball
The more things we use, the more specialized
our lifes become, and the better we have to
explain our personal situation before we can
hope to get our needs satisfied and our wishes
fulfilled. Which is the reason why most of our
language describes and explains the world.
Nevertheless, all of our language serves needs
and wishes.
Glossary of the new Magdalenian words, part 47
Some composites:
AC CA --- an expanse of land with water (ac)
sky (ca), possible name of Goebekli Tepe,
southeast Anatolia, Urfa region, north of the
Syrian Harran plain, 11 600 - 9 500 BP,
represented as a lying H, the horizontal bars
meaning earth and sky, the small vertical
bar meaning rain, falling from the sky and
filling the river beds; Latin aqua for water,
Indo-European akka for the earth goddess
(Pokorny)
CER MAS --- divine stag (cer) master (mas);
may have become Hermaes, messenger
of the gods, alter ego of Homer in the
Odyssey
CER PIR --- divine stag (cer) fire (pir), divine
stag protecting the western horizon where
the sun sets, and the eastern horizon where
the sun rises from; would have become
Cerberos guarding the Underworld with
fiery breath
CER AC CLE --- divine stag (cer) expanse
of land with water (ac) judge and protector
(cle as lateral association to cre for ruler);
would survive in Heracles
SHA CA UR --- ruler (sha) sky (ca) color (ur);
may have become Sseyr, Middle Helladic
name of Zeus (Derk Ohlenroth), and English
sky. Sky, in Shakespeare's time, meant cloud.
Clouds, one may say, rule the heavens. When
I pondered this idea last year I saw a big cloud
in the shape of the beautiful profile of a bearded
Greek god pass my window ...
CA UR MAS DAG --- sky (ca) color (ur) master
(mas) four (dag), ruler of the four (corners of
the) heavens; may have become the supreme
Persian god Ahura-Mazda
BRA MAN --- right arm (bra) right hand (man);
may have become Brahma who created the
world playing his lyra
SHA CA --- ruler (sha) sky (ca); may have
become Hebrew Jahve
ABA BRA --- father (aba) right arm (bra); may
have become Abram, the Lord's right arm,
he who carries out the Lord's will
SA RAA --- downward (sa) ray of light (raa),
she on whom falls a ray from the heavens;
may have become Sarah
AS RAA --- upward (as) ray of light (raa);
may have become Asherah, the tree of life
whose branches, pointing upward, represent
heavenly abodes of deities
GHI SHA AC --- call of a bird (ghi) ruler (sha)
sky (ca), supreme ruler of the Guyenne,
later of Upper Mesopotamia; may survive
in Isaac
SHA AC --- ruler (sha) expanse of land with
water (ac), a minor ruler; may have become
Jacques Jack Ja'aqob Jacob, also sagan
for the ruler of the province of Judah
AS RAA ) --- upward (as) ray of light (raa)
Lord (clicking L); may be the origin of Jacob's
ladder, the Lord on top of a sun ray, and would
have become Israel, Jacob's byname
DA PAD --- away from (da) activity of feet
(pad); may be the origin of David: delivered
from the paw of the lion, delivered from the
paw of the bear, delivered from the hand of
Goliath ... Consider the increasing size of
lion, cave bear, and towering warrior in arms.
David may be an archetypical name, much
as Arthur from ARC TYR, he who can take it
up with a cave bear.
Asia Minor may have been the place where
Magdalenian met Afro-Asiatic, Magdalenian
itself being an early northern branch of
Afro-Asiatic.
.
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