Date:  Sat, 15 Nov 1997 17:19:30 -0500
From:  "David W. Pass" <Beatfarm[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Double negatives (was one as a pronoun?)

Dear Ms. Flannigan,
   I still beg to differ. You say that "language is language." Is this to
indicate that you believe it to be unchanging. I should hope not. Neither
am I meaning to imply that logic and language are in any way equivilant.
 Indeed logic is developed through language but yet language is also
developed through logic. The two are quite inextricable. Are you aware of
Semiotics? This is the study of signs. Words are signs that describe ideas.
 Ideas describe reality. So, any word can be described using an axiom of
formal logic called "hypothetical syllogism": if P then Q/if Q then
R/therefore R. This does not say that "logic is language" or that we should
adopt logic as our language. It simply says that -- because language can be
described by logic -- language is logical. Likewise, because logic can be
described by language, logic is linguistic. The two are very much
intermeshed. That is inarguable, and that is all I meant to imply.

Dave Pass