On sentences (and why)
Friday, April 13, 2007 6:51:11 PM
And once that happens, the sentence is there, and then what? Maybe it will be analyzed and studied? Picked apart?
And a careful parser may quickly reduce the sentence to substantive terms, free from surrounding context, for instance. As such, one cannot help but expect to see, whether it's there or not, an intent, a motivation, and a meaning behind the sentence, sooner or later.
"Surely", the parser would argue, "the sentence was not written by someone who cannot think, thus expecting the sentence to be merely nonsense is illogical - or cynical, evidencing an almost humorously exaggerated lack of faith in humanity!".
However, the subject- matter is not known from the sentence. And in fact, through the assumption that reason, however well hidden, must be there - both the meaning and reason is divined outside the subject's intention, even if it existed on beforehand.
Possibly, the meaning was always there, and only needed an excuse to be voiced.
Sentence- structure
(and the point with it.)
A sentence only needs recognizable intent in order to have meaning, naturally. So what is the point of gathering words - meaningful words - into graceful semantic movements on the page?
It is true, I suppose, that a meaningful message may often ameliorate the ugliness of the performance, just a beautiful one may deflect attention from the message - or lack of one. Nevertheless, the case is most often - however hard it is for the writer to admit it - that unclear and confusing sentences are the result of sloppy and inconsistent thinking. Covered up in tortured logic, weak semantic reasoning and conclusions most resembling wishful thinking, than anything else.
Which is also why, of course, that the most unfathomable stupidities often sound both appealing and clever, when they are said.






