-----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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