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Re: An interesting interview of Nabokov in French
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I think the verb invent¹ needs clarification in the context of forming
words as opposed to building material gadgets or devising production
processes. In the latter cases, there are established historical and legal
tests to establish priority¹ and support the claim of invention.¹ The
oft-tangled, trans-national Patent process reveals the common complexities
of proving genuinely independent¹ innovation, affecting many technological
breakthroughs (telephony, radio, computers, ...) Both national pride and
hard cash are involved, tempting some deliberate distortion of the claims.
Yet, FACTUAL questions can be posed which are essentially answerable!¹:
such as When did X invent and publicly demonstrate gadget A?¹ and Was X¹s
invention before or after or independent of Y¹s demonstration of A on
such-a-date?¹
Claimed neologisms,¹ such as VN¹s nymphet,¹ lack a comparable verification
trail. New words can emerge by simply applying existing transformational
rules embedded in a language over unmapped (indeed, un-mappable) ages. Thus
prefixes and suffixes abound in all I.E. Languages, poised and waiting, as
it were, to be attached with predictable effect on the root, long before
being blessed by a dictionary entry or citation.
In particular, the many rules for forming diminutives include adding the
suffix -et¹ and -ette.¹ So what VN invented¹ was not nymphet,¹ the
diminutive of nympth,¹ but, as he clearly acknowledges in the cited
interview, the first user of the pre-existing¹ noun nymphet¹ with an
original, refined/specific¹ definition (see Lolita for age and physical
attributes.)
I can see that this may be a puzzle to those who rely religiously¹ on
dictionaries for (i) exhaustive definitions (ii) eternal notions of correct
usage,¹ and (ii) proofs of existence.
But it should be clear that no dictionary can cope with inevitable semantic
shifts, nor define all the valid English derivatives of the root (or atomic)
noun. I¹ve no idea if the following have yet been used: nymphish, nymphity,
nymphetize, nymphetisation, denympth, nymphological, ... Modern electronic
word-sweepers will eventually pick up these words, and more, and
lexicographers will make human-frail decisions as to their right-to-live.¹
The base-word nympth¹ itself has attracted dozens of meanings since its
Latin-via-Greek origins, as any decent dictionary will attest. Etymology
(e.g., numpha = bride) offers only the vaguest hint to the current semantic
spread, reminding us of linguistic¹s most persistent fallacy: meanings
depend on origins rather than from actual observed usage.
Summary: Nabokov was justified in claiming to be the first to use nymphet¹
as defined in his novel Lolita. But, as Maurice Couturier notes, this
confers no monopoly¹ on the word itself, and can never preclude other valid
usages of nymphet¹ and nymphette¹ based on the diminutive suffixes.
Stan Kelly-Bootle.
On 19/01/2011 18:12, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> Maurice Couturier: "While writing my new book ("Nabokov, ou la tentation
> française"; it hopefully will come out this year) in which I study Nabokov's
> brand of French, his many stays in France, the circumstances in which "Lolita"
> was published and censored in France, Nabokov's strong opinions about French
> authors from Ronsard to Robbe-Grillet, and the reception of his works in
> France, I came across a very interesting interview he gave to "L'Express" in
> 1959 which I would like to share, in my translation, with the Nabokovians..."
>
> JM: A few months ago I came across an information related to Ronsard (it was
> posted in the Nab-L, Oct. 2010, #110) in which Maurice Couturier affirms that
> Nabokov may not have been familiar with Ronsard's "chanson," where the term
> "nymphette" appears*.
> In the interesting interview he generously translated and shared with the List
> we find that Nabokov was familiar with "a sonnet" by Ronsard, but that he
> considered that it was not a genuine "nymphetic" coinage, as it was in the
> case of his word in connection to the particular kind of "nymphet" he
> describes in "Lolita". I wonder if Couturier could expand on his point about
> Ronsard's priority in the use of "nymphette," if Nabokov's claim ( "an
> infrigement of my rights") is justified or not.
>
> extracted item from the interview given to L¹Express in Paris - 1959 and
> translated by Maurice Couturier:
>
> - Did you invent the word ³nymphet²?
> V. Nabokov: Yes, I did. There was already the word ³nymph². And Ronsard, who
> likes Latin diminutives, used the word ³nymphette² in a sonnet. But not in the
> sense I used it. For him it was a nymph who was gentle....
>
> ..............................................................................
> .............
> * cf. Maurice Couturier -« The Distinguished Writer vs the Child », Cycnos,
> Volume 10 n°1, mis en ligne le 13 juin 2008, URL :
> http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287
> <http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287> . " A pity, by the way, that
> Mademoiselle did not read all of Ronsard's poetry to him. He would never have
> claimed, as he did in a letter, that he had invented the French word
> "nymphette" : "I am informed that a French motion picture company is about to
> make a picture entitled 'The Nymphets' ('Les Nymphettes'). The use of this
> title is an infringement of my rights since this term was invented by me for
> the main character in my novel Lolita and has now become completely synonymous
> with Lolita in the minds of readers throughout the world."17 The French word
> appeared in the late fifteenth century and was later used by Ronsard in one of
> his "Chansons"[...] The opening lines could be translated as follows: "Little
> gamesome nymph,/ Nymphet I idolize." It is always tricky to claim one's rights
> upon a word, especially a foreign word which is easily derived from a very
> common one. Nabokov knew his Ronsard, of course, and he quoted him in Lolita,
> but apparently he did not know this "chanson" which was set to music by
> Clément Jannequin. It is thanks to him, though, that the word got a new lease
> on life in French in the very special meaning we know. "
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words as opposed to building material gadgets or devising production
processes. In the latter cases, there are established historical and legal
tests to establish priority¹ and support the claim of invention.¹ The
oft-tangled, trans-national Patent process reveals the common complexities
of proving genuinely independent¹ innovation, affecting many technological
breakthroughs (telephony, radio, computers, ...) Both national pride and
hard cash are involved, tempting some deliberate distortion of the claims.
Yet, FACTUAL questions can be posed which are essentially answerable!¹:
such as When did X invent and publicly demonstrate gadget A?¹ and Was X¹s
invention before or after or independent of Y¹s demonstration of A on
such-a-date?¹
Claimed neologisms,¹ such as VN¹s nymphet,¹ lack a comparable verification
trail. New words can emerge by simply applying existing transformational
rules embedded in a language over unmapped (indeed, un-mappable) ages. Thus
prefixes and suffixes abound in all I.E. Languages, poised and waiting, as
it were, to be attached with predictable effect on the root, long before
being blessed by a dictionary entry or citation.
In particular, the many rules for forming diminutives include adding the
suffix -et¹ and -ette.¹ So what VN invented¹ was not nymphet,¹ the
diminutive of nympth,¹ but, as he clearly acknowledges in the cited
interview, the first user of the pre-existing¹ noun nymphet¹ with an
original, refined/specific¹ definition (see Lolita for age and physical
attributes.)
I can see that this may be a puzzle to those who rely religiously¹ on
dictionaries for (i) exhaustive definitions (ii) eternal notions of correct
usage,¹ and (ii) proofs of existence.
But it should be clear that no dictionary can cope with inevitable semantic
shifts, nor define all the valid English derivatives of the root (or atomic)
noun. I¹ve no idea if the following have yet been used: nymphish, nymphity,
nymphetize, nymphetisation, denympth, nymphological, ... Modern electronic
word-sweepers will eventually pick up these words, and more, and
lexicographers will make human-frail decisions as to their right-to-live.¹
The base-word nympth¹ itself has attracted dozens of meanings since its
Latin-via-Greek origins, as any decent dictionary will attest. Etymology
(e.g., numpha = bride) offers only the vaguest hint to the current semantic
spread, reminding us of linguistic¹s most persistent fallacy: meanings
depend on origins rather than from actual observed usage.
Summary: Nabokov was justified in claiming to be the first to use nymphet¹
as defined in his novel Lolita. But, as Maurice Couturier notes, this
confers no monopoly¹ on the word itself, and can never preclude other valid
usages of nymphet¹ and nymphette¹ based on the diminutive suffixes.
Stan Kelly-Bootle.
On 19/01/2011 18:12, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> Maurice Couturier: "While writing my new book ("Nabokov, ou la tentation
> française"; it hopefully will come out this year) in which I study Nabokov's
> brand of French, his many stays in France, the circumstances in which "Lolita"
> was published and censored in France, Nabokov's strong opinions about French
> authors from Ronsard to Robbe-Grillet, and the reception of his works in
> France, I came across a very interesting interview he gave to "L'Express" in
> 1959 which I would like to share, in my translation, with the Nabokovians..."
>
> JM: A few months ago I came across an information related to Ronsard (it was
> posted in the Nab-L, Oct. 2010, #110) in which Maurice Couturier affirms that
> Nabokov may not have been familiar with Ronsard's "chanson," where the term
> "nymphette" appears*.
> In the interesting interview he generously translated and shared with the List
> we find that Nabokov was familiar with "a sonnet" by Ronsard, but that he
> considered that it was not a genuine "nymphetic" coinage, as it was in the
> case of his word in connection to the particular kind of "nymphet" he
> describes in "Lolita". I wonder if Couturier could expand on his point about
> Ronsard's priority in the use of "nymphette," if Nabokov's claim ( "an
> infrigement of my rights") is justified or not.
>
> extracted item from the interview given to L¹Express in Paris - 1959 and
> translated by Maurice Couturier:
>
> - Did you invent the word ³nymphet²?
> V. Nabokov: Yes, I did. There was already the word ³nymph². And Ronsard, who
> likes Latin diminutives, used the word ³nymphette² in a sonnet. But not in the
> sense I used it. For him it was a nymph who was gentle....
>
> ..............................................................................
> .............
> * cf. Maurice Couturier -« The Distinguished Writer vs the Child », Cycnos,
> Volume 10 n°1, mis en ligne le 13 juin 2008, URL :
> http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287
> <http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287> . " A pity, by the way, that
> Mademoiselle did not read all of Ronsard's poetry to him. He would never have
> claimed, as he did in a letter, that he had invented the French word
> "nymphette" : "I am informed that a French motion picture company is about to
> make a picture entitled 'The Nymphets' ('Les Nymphettes'). The use of this
> title is an infringement of my rights since this term was invented by me for
> the main character in my novel Lolita and has now become completely synonymous
> with Lolita in the minds of readers throughout the world."17 The French word
> appeared in the late fifteenth century and was later used by Ronsard in one of
> his "Chansons"[...] The opening lines could be translated as follows: "Little
> gamesome nymph,/ Nymphet I idolize." It is always tricky to claim one's rights
> upon a word, especially a foreign word which is easily derived from a very
> common one. Nabokov knew his Ronsard, of course, and he quoted him in Lolita,
> but apparently he did not know this "chanson" which was set to music by
> Clément Jannequin. It is thanks to him, though, that the word got a new lease
> on life in French in the very special meaning we know. "
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/