A note regarding unspeakable words
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Marvin Bram,
Marvin Bram (b. 1935) is Professor Emeritus at Hobart and William Smith Colleges 〈annvan@rochester.rr.com〉. His research interests include symbolic history, writing systems, and origins of civilization in the Middle East.
Abstract
This article first traces the development of a contrapuntal writing system through three articles by Bram in Semiotica. A poem,“On Standing Before an Egyptian Inscription” presents the problem of the Note: what is occurring “between the lines” of the poem's doublets. The work of Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, and Dorothea Olkowski supplies hints toward a definition of the unwritten, “unspeakable” words generated by the written words of the doublets. Six characteristics of unspeakable words finally suggest themselves: they are singular, private, fluid, archaic, and humorous, and they do not submit to the principle of noncontradiction.
About the author
Marvin Bram (b. 1935) is Professor Emeritus at Hobart and William Smith Colleges 〈annvan@rochester.rr.com〉. His research interests include symbolic history, writing systems, and origins of civilization in the Middle East.
©[2012] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Masthead
- Idealizing the life-world in the age of discovery
- Peirce's ten trichotomies: Metaphor, hypothesis, and decision
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- What is the proper characterization of the alphabet? VI: Three-finger exercises
- Dynamic modeling of visual texts: A relational model
- Touch, vision, and diagrammatical reasoning
- The making of theatrical groupings: A cognitive perspective
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