Posted by zeugma on September 24, 2004, at 20:24:32
In reply to Re: Clarifications of clarifications, posted by verne on September 24, 2004, at 15:52:27
> My use of language is a kind of groping in the dark. I tend to be very imprecise and use a lot of metaphors or figures of speech.
I don't consider metaphors or figures of speech to be an inferior or 'imprecise' mode of communication. There have been attempts to 'purify' language of these elements. However, the very idea of a 'cleaner' or 'purified' language is itself metaphorical, so these projects are themselves rhetorical displays, if you see what I mean.
>
> When I'm pressed for clarification I feel invalidated and even threatened. And rather than opening up the lines of communication, it shuts them down.
>If someone says, "I don't understand what you mean by x," yes, that is often a threatening response, or at the very least a claim that the post is not consonant with what the replier him- or herself believes.
> Perhaps that's just me or a borderline thing.
>
I don't think so.-z
> Verne
poster:zeugma
thread:394487
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040923/msgs/394718.html