Class Notes: 10/19/10

 Notes 10/19/10

Anne: course-keeping, went over written course evaluations, read comments about our discussions might turn into arguments, class evaluations, what we are doing from here on out. Go over material that we will be covering, reading, watching. Decide amongst ourselves which books we will be reading because our first list was too extensive, too much material. Paper due soon!!! Can write about any material/conversation covered thus far.

On to etymologies…

Aya Seaver: wants to read the dictionary. On a spectrum, very easy to back it into the corner of nonfiction, look at the politics because it is more complicated

Anne: So narrative may be abandoned in an effort to give definitions

Aya Seaver: why write a thematic ark of an encyclopedia because no one reads it

FatCatRex: Sam Edwards dictionary has preface, seems to have a narrative quality. Feels like structure of definitions more colloquial and approachable, first one to write definitions to things, had nothing to base it upon, there were no expectations

Anne: the whole book is a narrative of etymology as it develops and becomes speech

FatCatRex: was a narrative at the time it was written. Uses examples from classic literature (Shakespeare, Locke, Milton)

Anne: a question on the table today- do dictionaries function as narrative? Asked you to look up etymologies, so here is the definition of etymology- true sense of the word. Online etymology. Explanations vs. definitions. Culler quote, break into groups to look at word definitions

EVD: Fact, from what actually exists to what allegedly happened

ckosarek: Fact in latin, the source has several different meanings, like report

Aya: report can mean different things

veritatemdelixi: French standardize, so no comparison

Aya Seaver: german has some words that mean 2 things

ckosarek: fiction, latin root down to “deceive”, interesting because fiction sometimes aims at showing a universal truth

Owl: Reality- OED contradictory, kept looking up pieces of the definition. Reality is a matter of fact, narratives are contradictory

FatCatRex: interesting to look at how definitions look based on cultural narrative

Anne: can look up 2 words in each definition, keeps branching out

veritatemdelixi: get “poor word choice” on essays

SandraGandarez: open to personal definition too, how you want to use it

Aya Seaver: sometimes a reference point (dictionary definition). Etymology different, you need to be able to use a word properly, may not be able to absolutely define it

Anne: does it affect our understanding of our contemporary understanding of words when you look back to Latin roots? Change contemporary usage?

Owl: Reality Hunger- if you’re doing to agree that the history of a word is helpful in understanding it now, have to agree that stuff in the past was right

Anne: which dictionaries did we use? Set up exercise to look at it being a narrative or not. Interesting paper might be the history of a dictionary, source of restrictions

tgarber: edited a Wikipedia page

SandraGandarez: not so monitored

Aya Seaver: sibling’s school page got locked because of changed

SandraGandarez: Urban changes with history, more like a narrative

veritatemdelixi: dictionary very definitive to hold it, feel power

Aya Seaver: don’t catalogue entire human language experience, but a good portion of it