* Which see.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Mathematics for Language Animals*
Comments Off on Mathematics for Language Animals*
Monday, June 29, 2026
Steiner Revisited . . . Reality for “Language Animals”
George Steiner on chess in “A Death of Kings,” The New Yorker,
issue dated September 7, 1968, page 133 —
| At the sight of a set, even the tawdriest of plastic pocket sets, one’s fingers arch and a coldness as in a light sleep steals over one’s spine. Not for gain, not for knowledge or renown, but in some autistic enchantment, pure as one of Bach’s inverted canons or Euler’s formula for polyhedra. There, surely, lies one of the real connections. For all their wealth of content, for all the sum of history and social institution vested in them, music, mathematics, and chess are resplendently useless (applied mathematics is just higher plumbing, a kind of music for the police band). They are metaphysically trivial, irresponsible. They refuse to relate outward, to take reality for arbiter. This is the source of their witchery. They tell us, as does a kindred but much later process, abstract art, of man’s unique capacity to “build against the world,” to devise forms that are zany, totally useless, austerely frivolous. Such forms are irresponsible to reality, and therefore inviolate, as is nothing else, to the banal authority of death. |
See also . . .
Comments Off on Steiner Revisited . . . Reality for “Language Animals”
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Philosophy for Language Animals:
Quantized Canonical Crystal!
This post was suggested by yesterday's "Kyoto Meditation."
Comments Off on Philosophy for Language Animals:
Quantized Canonical Crystal!
Quantized Canonical Crystal!
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
For a Language Animal:
“A Frequency Greater than Chance”
Related "grave breach" illustration . . .
Flores para los muertos
Comments Off on For a Language Animal:
“A Frequency Greater than Chance”
“A Frequency Greater than Chance”
Saturday, July 12, 2025
On Screenwriters Spinning Their Wheels …
From a Language Animal
(A sequel to the previous post,
"For a Language Animal")
From Nine Perfect Strangers
Season 2 Episode 4 — The Major Lift
12:25 Imogen has three graduate degrees.
12:27 Really?
12:28 Wow.
12:30 In what?
12:31 Psychology, linguistics and linguistic psychology.
12:34 So, um, psycholinguistics?
12:37 Uh, no.
12:38 Psycholinguistics is the study of how human psychology
allows us to develop and learn language.
12:44 Linguistic psychology is, it's, that's different.
12:46 Oh, how so?
12:48 Well, it's the study of how our patterns of speech
affect our emotional life.
12:54 You know?
12:55 You know how some people say words are violence?
12:58 As opposed to literal violence?
12:59 I don't think she means it in that sense.
13:01 Oh, no.
13:01 That is.
13:02 Oh, it is?
13:02 No, that is what I'm trying to say.
13:04 Yeah.
13:05 Right.
13:05 Sorry.
13:06 Um.
13:07 So, linguistic psychology is the study of how and why
language can sometimes have the same,
13:13 same effect on your body as physical assault.
13:17 So, I was the first person to just start that solo study.
13:22 Does that mean you made it up?
13:24 Uh, I pioneered it.
13:25 I didn't think they let you do that.
13:27 They basically let you do anything you want at NYU.
13:31 On that note, uh, cheers.
13:33 Cheers.
13:35 Cheers.
A possible musical accompaniment . . .
Comments Off on On Screenwriters Spinning Their Wheels …
From a Language Animal
From a Language Animal
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
For a Language Animal: The Barcelona Morphing
Comments Off on For a Language Animal: The Barcelona Morphing
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Lost in Translation for language animals:
“Wen A Laddie” Meets “A Lassie”
See as well "language animal," a phrase apparently coined by
Fields of Force author George Steiner.
Comments Off on Lost in Translation for language animals:
“Wen A Laddie” Meets “A Lassie”
“Wen A Laddie” Meets “A Lassie”
Monday, March 10, 2025
For Language Animals . . .
“And thereby hangs a suffix”
Comments Off on For Language Animals . . .
“And thereby hangs a suffix”
“And thereby hangs a suffix”
Monday, May 6, 2024
Game for a Language Animal: Found in Translation
This seems to imply that Stone's real name is . . .
"I can't do it anymore."
Perhaps she would enjoy a song based on the alleged last words
of Picasso: "Ya no lo puedo hacer," or "Yanolo" for short.
For art fans, some images from the the above Mirador de les arts date —
Comments Off on Game for a Language Animal: Found in Translation
Friday, December 29, 2023
Mystery for language animals…
Did video, in fact, kill the radio star?
The above "Take This Waltz" review is dated July 5, 2012.
Related material from posts of July 5, 2012 —
.
Comments Off on Mystery for language animals…
Did video, in fact, kill the radio star?
Did video, in fact, kill the radio star?
Monday, December 11, 2023
Programming for Language Animals*
From this journal on December 7th, the first night of Hannukah 2023 —
|
Other "Styx"-related material posted here earlier today . . .
Note that the above Styx communications protocol should not be
"Right through hell there is a path . . . ." — Malcolm Lowry |
From zdnet.com two days earlier —
|
Linus Torvalds on the state of Linux today
" Looking ahead, Hohndel said, we must talk about
Torvalds — "We actually need autocorrects on steroids. — zdnet.com, |
Midrash —
Comments Off on Programming for Language Animals*
Monday, July 31, 2023
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Language Animal Farm
Comments Off on Language Animal Farm
Friday, May 8, 2015
Reflections of a Language Animal*
Overlook/Duckworth, pp.48, £9.99
* "Language animal" is a phrase apparently
invented by Steiner in 1969 that he later
attributed vaguely to the ancient Greeks.
Comments Off on Reflections of a Language Animal*
Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Affine-Group Generation by Permutation of Parallel Subspaces
Compare Google AI Mode with Grok . . .
AI Mode says a conjecture on affine group generation in binary spaces is false,
but Grok says it is true. Which conclusion is correct? Does either AI actually
supply a valid proof for its conclusion?
https://x.com/i/grok/share/e6c7759afbe9437da3be55d6cafa8269
For Steiner's "language animals" . . . and now language models . . .
Logos
Comments Off on Affine-Group Generation by Permutation of Parallel Subspaces
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Definitions
George Steiner in 1969 defined man as "a language animal."
Here is Steiner in 1974 on another definition—
Comments Off on Definitions
Friday, October 3, 2025
Political Anatomy: Arteries Red, Veins Blue
Or… "Mathematics for Language Animals: A Unifying Framework"
Comments Off on Political Anatomy: Arteries Red, Veins Blue
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Bullshit Studies, 1985: Steiner vs. Cassirer
Click the above image to enlarge it.
Update of Monday morning, June 30 —
See as well in this journal the phrase"language animal," which
Taylor calls "George Steiner's phrase." Steiner himself attributed
the phrase to the ancient Greeks, but apparently never cited
an exact source, though he gave a transliterated Greek version,
"zoon phonanta" — again without citing a source.
Comments Off on Bullshit Studies, 1985: Steiner vs. Cassirer
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Tequila for Yanolo*
Saxophonist David Sanborn reportedly died Sunday at 78.
He appears in this journal in a search for "Tequila."
* For a Hollywood version of this name, see the May 6 post
"Game for a Language Animal."
Comments Off on Tequila for Yanolo*
Friday, December 8, 2023
Raiders of the Lost Logos
Example —
Background —
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
|
Comments Off on Raiders of the Lost Logos
Saturday, November 25, 2023
Seize the “Dia-”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/dia- —
"… before vowels, di-, word-forming element meaning
'through, in different directions, between,' also often
merely intensive, 'thoroughly, entirely,' from Greek
dia 'through; throughout,' probably cognate with bi-
and related to duo 'two' (from PIE root *dwo- 'two')
with a base sense of 'twice.' "
A midrash for Heidegger —
Here "PIE" does not refer to food. It is an acronym
for "Proto-Indo-European."
See as well "Language Animal" in this journal.
Comments Off on Seize the “Dia-”
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Cardinal Interplay
Comments Off on Cardinal Interplay
Saturday, October 8, 2016
The Upshot
George Steiner's phrase "the language animal" as examined by
Charles Taylor —
Steiner attributes his "language animal" phrase, in the transliterated
form "zoon phonanta," to the ancient Greeks. This attribution
is apparently bogus. See Steiner on Language (March 30, 2012).*
It is highly relevant that Taylor is a Catholic and Steiner is a secular Jew.
* More generally — See Steiner + Language + Animal in this journal.
Comments Off on The Upshot
Monday, May 11, 2015
George Steiner vs. the Order of St. Benedict
See Steiner's phrase "Language Animal" in this journal
and the corresponding authentic phrase from a webpage
by a Benedictine monk —
Comments Off on George Steiner vs. the Order of St. Benedict
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Duckworth*
See pato.jpg and Venn's Cuernavaca.
* A reference to the British publishing company
in the previous post.
Comments Off on Duckworth*
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Steiner’s Systems
Background— George Steiner in this journal
and elsewhere—
"An intensity of outward attention —
interest, curiosity, healthy obsession —
was Steiner’s version of God’s grace."
— Lee Siegel in The New York Times ,
March 12, 2009
(See also Aesthetics of Matter in this journal on that date.)
Steiner in 1969 defined man as "a language animal."
Here is Steiner in 1974 on another definition—
Related material—
Also related — Kantor in 1981 on "exquisite finite geometries," and The Galois Tesseract.
Comments Off on Steiner’s Systems