The MOLECULAR SEMEMICS PAGE
The Molecular Sememe: Toward a Model of an Ordinary Language
Molecular Sememics begins with the proposition
that the fundamental unit of meaning in ordinary language is the molecular
sememe. The sememe is not a word, a sign, or any single element in the lexicon,
but rather the synthetic order of signs that could occur at any marked moment
in the generation of a discourse. The actual word or sign chosen at that moment
has its meaning in contrast to, or in synthesis with, the other signs that
could have been chosen at that moment in that particular discourse. The meaning
created by that choice, it might be said, belongs to the "molecule"
as a whole as marked by the actual sign chosen.
This is a model which takes discourse, not
syntax, as fundamental. It is a synthetic model, not a formal or analytic one.
It suggests explanations to many old questions, such as how literary meaning,
including metaphor, is created; how language is learned; how word-meanings
change over time; why various rhetorics work the way they do; and why and how
we misunderstand each other when we try to communicate. This site, very much a
work in progress, hopes to present a concise outline of the model. (At this
point, probably the best brief outline is to be found in the Berkeley lecture.) In addition I include some
articles on various aspects of it, as well as drafts of some parts of the book
in progress, in hopes that with your help, the gaps can be filled more quickly.
Your suggestions are more than welcome.
--Price Caldwell
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Short, Polemical and
Orientational History of Linguistics
The MSES--the Molecule Selection-and-Execution Structure
The "Syntax"--Molecule-Selection
The "Semantics"--Molecule Execution
Comments and questions? Please write me at price@mail.hinocatv.ne.jp