OFF: Linguistics

[andrew]

>for feedback on "COMPLI /E/ MENT ".
> WOW, I LIKE THIS PRECISION !!!!!!!!!

Hmm, i trid to avoidoid it for this long but can last no longer; when
people were commenting on the difference between the compl(i/e)ments i did
notice that people were commenting that whilst colo(u)r were the same word,
the comps were not.
        Now, at a surface level they are but if we accept Roland Barthes'
distinction between denotation and connotation then they do both denote the
same concept, however what they connote is entirely different. Given that,
for Barthes, connotation is the zone of signification in which units of
language (and other systems of signs) acquires additional encrustations of
meaning. It is, for example, the level of meaning at which ideology operates.
        In this instance the variation in spelling indicates a regional variation
in language usage which begins to tell us something about the user of the
sign; further: if one were to use the spelling from another region then we
can read a further narrative at work within that which is connoted. The
best example here would be that of the English English speaker who was to
use the American English speaker's spelling sheme; from this we may begin
to posit some assumptions about the aspirational longings of that person,
not to mention having the beginnings of a case relating to American
cultural imperialism.
        So, yeah, colour and color are not the same thing.

Andrew, self-appointed 'Pedant-Bastard of the Day'


'All you daughters/sons who are sick of fancy music
We dig repetition
We dig repetition'
-The Fall