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What is "is".
Topic Started: Jul 6 2009, 09:21 PM (76 Views)
Linda

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Edited by Linda, Feb 23 2012, 09:56 PM.
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Charles Leitz
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As I understand it, the distinction you are making is between a quality such as tiredness, which one can 'have' for a duration but not 'be,' and a noun such as "female" which one can incontrovertably 'be.' (Of course, in our era of sex-changes and all that, one can posit 'having femaleness' as a mutable existence, too.) The linguistic note is an interesting one, and might be made even more so with access to some information about how speakers of those languages perceive existence. Is it a different view to that of an English speaker?

The metaphysical question here is what does it mean to possess a quale at all, or what does it mean to 'be' in any sense? What does the phrase "Snow is white" even mean? Is there any objective sense in which we can say that snow is, in fact, white? What is the final arbiter of 'being'?

Descartes would have us believe it is thought alone, Bacon would say it is the senses, Aquinas might well suggest it to be God. Some Nihilists might say that there isn't anything.
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Linda

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Edited by Linda, Feb 23 2012, 09:55 PM.
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Raye
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I probably shouldn't add any perspective (because I feel I have none - as in a philosophy about much {except that which follows the basic Ten Commandments, and that kittens are adorable, and that I enjoy Honey Nut Cheerios, yet I do not eat cereal for breakfast} to which Charles says is a philosophy...), yet I will say this in response to the lack of the verb in Chinese as it is also almost not present in Japanese, from what I understand (and do correct me if I am wrong). The translation for "I am hungry" is basically "I want to eat", using instead the verb 'to eat' - taberu たべる; watashi ha tabetai 私は たべたい, or: watashi ha tabete irimasu 私は たべて います。 The second translation uses the the verb 'to be animate' - iru いる... interpret as you wish. As for the verb in Japanese 'to have' - aru ある - it also functions in reflecting 'to be inanimate'.

However, in terms of using adjectives in descriptions, like Charles stated "the snow is white" - yuki ha shiroi desu ゆきは しろいです - you will see the same pattern as in the first example of being hungry - the 'ha' は (which is actually pronounced 'wa' in this context - yay languages!). In having learnt the language, it is in my understanding that the 'ha' refers to a confirmation of the subject in which the sentence is being made. When talking of one's self, as per wanting to eat, we see that the 'ha' defines that it is the "I" wanting to eat.

Yet, when the speaker is talking of a friend or family member (or another person/subject matter), or even a specific body part, the 'ha' is delayed... so to speak. In example, "my mother is a teacher" - watashi no okaasan ha sensei desu わたしの おかあさんは せんせいです - the 'ha' remains to present that my mother is a teacher, not myself, but the 'no' stands to maintain the relation to the subject, no matter how indirect. It's an interesting arrangement of the language.
Another example using body parts or a sense of ownership (such as a name, or age, or grade), "my eyes are blue" - watashi no me ha aoidesu 私の めは あおいです - notice that instead of the 'ha' being beside the 'watashi', it is now following the 'me', the eyes, as they are the direct subject which are blue. Instead, it is now 'no' following 'watashi' which delegates that there is further specificity to the statement.

That is the end of our first session in the studies of Japanese 101, and there will be a quiz next Friday...

EDIT: Linda queried me on "what is 'ha'", to which I should say it is merely a grammatical thing... I think. But, to be silly, I say "What is 'is'", just to shove it back in her face. And also, that this huge rambling post of mine does not infact contribute anything whatsoever to this thread on philosophy, but more linguistics as Charles pointed out to me. (=
Edited by Raye, Jul 6 2009, 11:43 PM.
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