Posted: Nov 22, 2010 10:56 pm
by seeker
katja z wrote:
seeker wrote:
katja z wrote:
That's a good point. I was being imprecise. I should have said the distinction ceased to matter. Is that better?

The distinction "ceased to matter" for whom, and why? No, I don´t think that´s better. I think the distinction still matters.

For the users, the speaking community (they're the ones to whom their language matters - the linguist is just being nosy ;)). Because of those real effects we've agreed about.

I think we're coming at this from completely different angles. In what sense do you think this distinction matters, and for whom? :cheers:

I don´t agree that "the distinction doesn´t matter for the users". Think about "Santa Claus": users that believe it has a physical referent act differently towards the word than users that believe it´s a fictional character. Both groups have those "real effects" we've agreed about, but those effects are arguably different for each group. The same could be said, ceteris paribus, about "gods" or any other issue. So I´d argue that the distinction is important for users (given that the speaking community is divided in groups with different behaviors related to those words), and therefore is important for linguists (given that they try to accurately model those different behaviors).