Guy Steele on names as predicates

[Guy Steele <cbmvax!uunet!Think.COM!gls>]

   Date: Thu, 13 Jun 91 02:02 EDT
   From: cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!lojbab@uunet.UU.NET (Bob LeChevalier)

   But the real point of names as opposed to other words is that names are more
   overtly symbols than other words.  We don;t ascribe any real semantics to
   "Mick Jagger" - it just labels an individual.  On the other hand, we try to
   "keep up with the Joneses", and there are no individuals that we have in mind
   when we use that idiom.

But I don't see why "cat" or "throw" has semantics that are more real
than those inherent in "Mick Jagger".

   Most of the time, though, names are a conventional label for one or more
   individuals, and there is nothing about that name that makes it especially
   apprpriate or inappropriate, except in the mind of the namer.

But there is nothing about the word "star" that makes it especially
appropriate or inappropriate to describe those little twinkling
lights in the sky.  With the exception of onomatopoeia, all words
are merely conventional labels for the concepts with which they
are associated in our minds, individually and collectively.

--Guy