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Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 12th, 2021, 2:35 pm
by Stirling Bartholomew
Greek and Septuagint Lexicography with William Ross
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8U6EmdWNNY
9 mins into this Ross makes the breath taking claim that biblical words are "no longer referential."
That is a statement that certainly begs to be misunderstood.
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 12th, 2021, 3:52 pm
by Stephen Carlson
I try to keep up on the current terminology, but here I have no idea what he means.
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 12th, 2021, 4:02 pm
by Stirling Bartholomew
Stephen Carlson wrote: ↑October 12th, 2021, 3:52 pm
I try to up on the current terminology, but here I have no idea what he means.
I don't either. He claims to be using a "cognitive" framework but says he does not want to get bogged down explaining it.
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 12th, 2021, 7:08 pm
by Stephen Carlson
The use of a “unicorn” as an example of something non-referential suggests that he’s bringing up Bertrand Russell’s theory of reference. See
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24247680
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 13th, 2021, 7:23 am
by Barry Hofstetter
A long time staple for atheist "apologists..."
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 13th, 2021, 8:03 am
by MAubrey
Barry Hofstetter wrote: ↑October 13th, 2021, 7:23 am
A long time staple for atheist "apologists..."
off topic.
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 13th, 2021, 8:49 am
by Eeli Kaikkonen
MAubrey wrote: ↑October 13th, 2021, 8:03 am
off topic.
Certainly, but may explain what that person means. And if my suspicion is correct, that person doesn't understand referentiality in the same way than I understand it (or at least think I understand

). It shouldn't be relevant at all if someone believes something does or does not exist, and using unicorn for reference (not sorry for the pun) may tell that he doesn't understand modern linguistics. Comments?
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 13th, 2021, 8:52 am
by William Ross
Hey there. Thanks to James Spinti for alerting me to this thread. I don't often haunt these hallowed halls, but I'll make a brief comment here. Honestly I'm not sure why this claim would be very breathtaking although apparently it does seem to have been misunderstood. The only point I am trying to make in this ~30-second comment is that meaning is conceptual (a core theoretical commitment of cognitive linguistics) and therefore, for words to have meaning they do not necessarily have to be referential. There is a good discussion of this idea in Kroeger (2019) 15-22 if you're interested. You can get the book open access (
https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/231).
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 13th, 2021, 10:20 am
by Daniel Semler
Sounds like time to shoot the guy an email and ask him what he means.
Thx
D
Re: Biblical words are nolonger referential?
Posted: October 13th, 2021, 10:21 am
by James Spinti
Already done. He should be responding shortly.
James