Hi Gavin,
There are fundamental differences between epistemology and linguistics both
in purpose and methods.
From a theoreticians' point of view, the question is which term should be
used to represent a particular concept. I.e. the concept (theory qua theory)
comes first , then it's simply a choice of label. At heart it is useful if
the label 's root meanings are coherent with the root meanings of terms used
to point to other concepts. In that sense, looking at the etymology of a
term is important. The 'everyday meaning' of a term (as researched by
linguistics) is relatively irrelevant.
Linguistics has a different purpose. I suggest that whilst linguistics may
be peripherally useful it is not central to the task of theory making or the
allocation of terms to concepts. I suspect this is true even in the
discipline of linguistics itself.
Thoughts?
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gavin
Melles
Sent: Tuesday, 30 September 2008 6:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Design as Research?
Dear Keith
No the alternative to dropping etymology in the sense discussed is not to
aggregate uses. 19th century philology is separated from modern linguistics
(particularly historical and comparative linguistics) by, among other
things, dropping the etymology (fallacy) as a relevant language game. The
alternative as corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology of language,
discourse analysis and other modern forms of linguistic work is to treat
(social, interactive ...) context and so forth as significant in helping
assemble the relevant meaning for the context of use. But look I'm talking
as a trained linguist so the fact that some groups, e.g. designers on this
list, want to continue to use etymology as a tool in their language game(s)
is fine ...
Dr Gavin Melles (EdD)
Research Fellow
Swinburne Design
-----
Swinburne University of Technology
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