Subject
Re: ADA's Baron Klim Avidov: Good should have fists]
From
Date
Body
On 03/08/2008 10:56, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark05@MAIL.RU> wrote:
>> >I don't
> think that "dobro" in russian literature
> really has these sexual connotations.
> ----
>
> Such generalized connotations are NOT our personal CHOICE, citoyen-comrade!
>
> How LANGUAGE really works (trust me and the Gnoams!): X uses a word W with an
> intended semantic-range S(X,W) = [XWs1 ... XWsn]; Y reads/hears W with a
> transformed semantic-range S(Y,W) = [YWs1 ... YWsm]. After
> inner-diambiguations and decontextualizations (left as a Chomskian exorcize
> for the reader) Y selects YWsi (i = 1 ... n) as best-plausible-fit (or
> possibly selects a subset of YWsi's simultaneously if X is suspected of
> punning). Normally, YWsi will match (within tolerance) a member of the set
> [XWs1 ... XWsn]. Over time we codify these denotational-connotational matches
> for each W over as many X/Y interactions as possible (and, of course, for Ws
> in different languages). It's called Lexicography, a dirty, tedious and
> inexact occupation (see Johnson, Sam) An observed fact: almost every W ever
> invented has been used by some X &/or interpreted by some Y, as having some
> connection with some aspect of sexual reproduction. The innocent words
> "cunning" and "stunts" provide a Nabokovian example*
>
> * Here we have the Spooner Transform: W1 + W2 -> W2[1] + W1[2 ... n] + W1[1] +
> W2[2 ... m]
> Nabokovians also do anagrams, e.g., my fictitious Radio station FCUK.
>
> Note next how the English adj. "good" is concretized into soft "goodies" and
> hard "goods" (property _is_ nice). The same, according to my Oxford Russian
> doorstop, with adj. "dobro" (good) also serving as noun "belongings, property,
> goods ..."
>
> Random examples where GOODS become sexified: "She loved my family jewels." "A
> fine property you have to be sure, Molly -- I await a guided tour." "I
> wouldn't let that bugger in through _my_ back door." Which is NOT to say that
> we must always find intended naughties.
>
> Nuff sed?
>
> Anagrammatic Work-in-Progress (oops, wrong list?)
>
> ALEXEY SKLYARENKO = NO LAX SKYLARK EYE, 'E (that's a cockney HE)
>
> SK-B
>
> PS: Wonderful BBC VN plus Pushkin "sighting" at the Proms last night. Vasily
> Petrenko (St Petersberg lad) conducting _my_ LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC in
> Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. During interval, VN prose and Pushkin poem
> recited to illustrate the magic of Faberge Eggs and glam St Petersberg
> Winters. Google "BBC iPlayer" -- you may be able hear the concert & commentary
> via their website. Not available in all countries, I fea.
>
> Dear Sergei Soloviev,
>
> What is meant by "dobro" in Pushkin's lines: Ukho vsyak derzhal vostro / I
> khranil svoyo dobro ("Everybody was on his guard / And took care of his
> belongings")?
>
> Incidentally, the word dobro is also used by Pushkin, in a different sense, in
> "The Bronze Horseman" (1833). Cf. Eugene's words to Falconet's monument to
> Peter I (Part Two, l. 177): Dobro, stroitel' chudotvornyi! ("All right, the
> wondrous builder!"). Note that, on Antiterra, Pushkin is the author of the
> poem "Headless Horseman" (1.28). If this poem is about the same monument to
> Peter I (and not about a murder in Texas), it seems that the tsar didn't take
> sufficient care of a certain part of his body. On the other hand, in Pushkin's
> long poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" there is golova (head) still alive without the
> rest of the body. (About the idiomatic use of the word golova by certain
> Chernomorsk residents in Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf" see my note in
> Russian "Van Veen or Ivan Golovin: What was the Real Name of Ada's
> Protagonist?" soon to appear in Zembla.)
>
> Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
>> >I don't
> think that "dobro" in russian literature
> really has these sexual connotations.
> ----
>
> Such generalized connotations are NOT our personal CHOICE, citoyen-comrade!
>
> How LANGUAGE really works (trust me and the Gnoams!): X uses a word W with an
> intended semantic-range S(X,W) = [XWs1 ... XWsn]; Y reads/hears W with a
> transformed semantic-range S(Y,W) = [YWs1 ... YWsm]. After
> inner-diambiguations and decontextualizations (left as a Chomskian exorcize
> for the reader) Y selects YWsi (i = 1 ... n) as best-plausible-fit (or
> possibly selects a subset of YWsi's simultaneously if X is suspected of
> punning). Normally, YWsi will match (within tolerance) a member of the set
> [XWs1 ... XWsn]. Over time we codify these denotational-connotational matches
> for each W over as many X/Y interactions as possible (and, of course, for Ws
> in different languages). It's called Lexicography, a dirty, tedious and
> inexact occupation (see Johnson, Sam) An observed fact: almost every W ever
> invented has been used by some X &/or interpreted by some Y, as having some
> connection with some aspect of sexual reproduction. The innocent words
> "cunning" and "stunts" provide a Nabokovian example*
>
> * Here we have the Spooner Transform: W1 + W2 -> W2[1] + W1[2 ... n] + W1[1] +
> W2[2 ... m]
> Nabokovians also do anagrams, e.g., my fictitious Radio station FCUK.
>
> Note next how the English adj. "good" is concretized into soft "goodies" and
> hard "goods" (property _is_ nice). The same, according to my Oxford Russian
> doorstop, with adj. "dobro" (good) also serving as noun "belongings, property,
> goods ..."
>
> Random examples where GOODS become sexified: "She loved my family jewels." "A
> fine property you have to be sure, Molly -- I await a guided tour." "I
> wouldn't let that bugger in through _my_ back door." Which is NOT to say that
> we must always find intended naughties.
>
> Nuff sed?
>
> Anagrammatic Work-in-Progress (oops, wrong list?)
>
> ALEXEY SKLYARENKO = NO LAX SKYLARK EYE, 'E (that's a cockney HE)
>
> SK-B
>
> PS: Wonderful BBC VN plus Pushkin "sighting" at the Proms last night. Vasily
> Petrenko (St Petersberg lad) conducting _my_ LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC in
> Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. During interval, VN prose and Pushkin poem
> recited to illustrate the magic of Faberge Eggs and glam St Petersberg
> Winters. Google "BBC iPlayer" -- you may be able hear the concert & commentary
> via their website. Not available in all countries, I fea.
>
> Dear Sergei Soloviev,
>
> What is meant by "dobro" in Pushkin's lines: Ukho vsyak derzhal vostro / I
> khranil svoyo dobro ("Everybody was on his guard / And took care of his
> belongings")?
>
> Incidentally, the word dobro is also used by Pushkin, in a different sense, in
> "The Bronze Horseman" (1833). Cf. Eugene's words to Falconet's monument to
> Peter I (Part Two, l. 177): Dobro, stroitel' chudotvornyi! ("All right, the
> wondrous builder!"). Note that, on Antiterra, Pushkin is the author of the
> poem "Headless Horseman" (1.28). If this poem is about the same monument to
> Peter I (and not about a murder in Texas), it seems that the tsar didn't take
> sufficient care of a certain part of his body. On the other hand, in Pushkin's
> long poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" there is golova (head) still alive without the
> rest of the body. (About the idiomatic use of the word golova by certain
> Chernomorsk residents in Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf" see my note in
> Russian "Van Veen or Ivan Golovin: What was the Real Name of Ada's
> Protagonist?" soon to appear in Zembla.)
>
> Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/