{"id":4096,"date":"2018-11-14T11:40:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T11:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/11\/14\/shit-and-st\/"},"modified":"2018-11-14T11:40:19","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T11:40:19","slug":"shit-and-st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/11\/14\/shit-and-st\/","title":{"rendered":"Of ‘Shit’ and ‘S**t,’ Type and Token"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many words immediately below, two or one?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

cat
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

cat.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Both answers are plausible, and indeed equally plausible; but they can't both be right. There can't be both two words and one word. The obvious way to solve the problem is by distinguishing between token and type. We say: there are two tokens of the same type. One type, two tokens. That's a good proximate solution but not, if I am right, a good ultimate one. But that's a long story for another time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some write 's**t' to avoid writing 'shit.' Aren't they two tokens of the same word type? How then can one token be offensive and the other not? Or one more offensive than the other?<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a dilemma for your delectation:<\/span><\/p>\n

Either we have two tokens of the same type or we don't. If the former, then both are offensive, and nothing is gained in point of politeness by writing 's**t' instead of 'shit.'<\/span><\/p>\n

If, on the other hand, the inscriptions are not two tokens of the same type, then 's**t' cannot substitute for 'shit' in a manner that conveys the same meaning that 'shit' conveys to the English speaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

We seem to have sunk into some really deep shit\/s**t!<\/span><\/p>\n

(Crossposted at my FB page where I expect some discussion to erupt.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How many words immediately below, two or one? cat cat. Both answers are plausible, and indeed equally plausible; but they can't both be right. There can't be both two words and one word. The obvious way to solve the problem is by distinguishing between token and type. We say: there are two tokens of the … Continue reading “Of ‘Shit’ and ‘S**t,’ Type and Token”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,408,247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters","category-language-philosophy-of","category-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}