Subject: re : 8 . 1059 , disc : evolution analytic > synthetic

on sun , 13 jul 1997 bill bennett wrote : if my language use sought conciseness > ( implicitness ) , than in time it might be working at the well-known > " now for cocoa and i ' ll put the cat out " with one vocable , the > language might end as " ugh " ( synethesis ) - unless the language were to > be " saved " by a countering balance in explicitness . i ' ve always enjoyed the verbal humor of the marx brothers , what with their puns and all ( phonology is the beginning of humor ) , but only in my dotage am i beginning to understand the exquisite wit and profundity of burns & allens , e . g . , what is going on in terms of expectations for the discourse management of information in the following exchange . gracie : i cut myself with soup the other day . george : hunh ? gracie : the other day i cut myself with soup . george : you cut yourself with soup ? gracie : yeah , i was opening the can and . . . keep it up with the implicit and the explicit and the concise and economy for the speaker vs . intelligibility for the addressee and-all - that . in the final analysis , it is such exchanges as burns & allens which ultimately explains why language will never reduce to ugh . say goodnight . . .
