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Re: Preparation H in Pale Fire (VN and linguistics)
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-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
Behalf Of NABOKV-L
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 1:57 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Preparation H in Pale Fire (VN and linguistics)
[EDNOTE. Stan Kelly-Bootle responds here to Jansy Mello's earlier email
on purloined "letters" in PF. --SES]
JM (if you'll forgive the initial formality?): love VN's "cosmic" ->
"comic" transformation. Joyce had his "funeral" -> "funferal."
Some Medieval soi-disants etymologists "literally" believed that
"lignum" must be related to "ignis" since "fire" sort of resided in the
"wood."
Spoilsport Saussure urges caution: the mapping from signifier to
Signified is entirely arbitrary. VN, contra Saussure, seems to _see_
words
Themselves as direct, howbeit "shadowy," links to an underpinning
reality. Shadows
certainly distort and hide aspects of the objects casting them, but, as
in Plato's caves, VN's word-shadows are far from arbitrary.
Can someone[s] point me to relevant VN sources? I'm especially
interested in VN's reaction, if any, to Chomsky's spin on "universal &
transformational grammar." This could add to the previous exchanges on
VN's views on
"stream of consciousness" narrative.
skb
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