> Through Trump’s posturing and the mark’s erect body and one-balled bottom, ! has become “aggressively phallic,” and is in bad need of saving.
Why -- why -- do contemporary American writers feel the need to inject their political affiliation into every piece they make public? This is a pop-academic essay on the use of exclamations in literature, not a NYT op-ed.
It’s called “identity politics” for a reason: it’s no longer who one votes for but an entire world view about who one is —- and more importantly who one is not and it demands to be constantly displayed and reinforced.
I agree - its truly tiresome. But then, if all the media is banging on about Trump + Russian collusion for 3 years, as if there was nothing else, I guess this does impact people.
The exclamation point is definitely falling out of fashion. It, like capitalizing "ok", is now a marker that the writer is older. Except in formal contexts, when a young person wants to exclaim they don't use an exclamation point, they use capitals.
Like most "language X has no word for Y" or "language X has a thousand words for Y" claims, it's true in a trivial sense and false in a practical sense.
Yes, there is no exact translation for "mind" that carries with it every contextual sense the word can have in English. Word-for-word translations generally don't work very well in any pair of languages.
German does however have plenty of words that have the same meaning as "mind" when used in the same context: Bewusstsein (consciousness), Verstand (reason), Geist (spirit/intellect), Gedanken (thoughts), Gehirn (brain), Meinung (opinion), Phantasie (imagination), Denkweise (way of thinking), Gemüt (disposition) and so on. So does German have no word for "mind" or a dozen?
Daniel Dennett created a nice word for such claims: "deepity". A statement that seems insightful (deep) at first but turns out to be trivial if you spend a few seconds reflecting on it.
German doesn't have a word for "mind" because it's an English word and there's a dozen words that already express the same ideas in every possible context. If you find a concrete context in which there is no word sufficiently expressing the same idea, that's when you create a new one or borrow one: like zeitgeist, a German word that could just as well have been translated as "spirit of the times" or angst, another German word that literally means fear or dread.
But the point may have been made im Scherz, an expression that may exist in English, but to which some of its transatlantic speakers have an ambivalent relation.
Depends. It can also mean "being aware (of something)": "(sich etw.) bewusst sein". In that sense I guess mindfulness could be translated this way (in case you're wondering, the German term for mindfulness is just "Mindfulness", just like the German term for computer is "Computer").
I'd go a bit more with "being (self-)aware". Being conscious sounds a bit more like a (positive) medical condition, compared to being unconscious, while awareness is more of a mindful thing.
Readit News
Why -- why -- do contemporary American writers feel the need to inject their political affiliation into every piece they make public? This is a pop-academic essay on the use of exclamations in literature, not a NYT op-ed.
"OK, look, I almost died!" <- Boomer
"Ok, look, I ALMOST DIED <- Zoomer
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I wouldn't say that the user of OK is older;rather, they tend to be, "not dumb."
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sniffing_Accountant
As a german native speaker I belive "Bewusstsein" is the german word for "mind".
Interesting fact: "Bewusst - sein" written in two words is retranslated word by word to something like: "Beeing mindful"
Yes, there is no exact translation for "mind" that carries with it every contextual sense the word can have in English. Word-for-word translations generally don't work very well in any pair of languages.
German does however have plenty of words that have the same meaning as "mind" when used in the same context: Bewusstsein (consciousness), Verstand (reason), Geist (spirit/intellect), Gedanken (thoughts), Gehirn (brain), Meinung (opinion), Phantasie (imagination), Denkweise (way of thinking), Gemüt (disposition) and so on. So does German have no word for "mind" or a dozen?
Daniel Dennett created a nice word for such claims: "deepity". A statement that seems insightful (deep) at first but turns out to be trivial if you spend a few seconds reflecting on it.
German doesn't have a word for "mind" because it's an English word and there's a dozen words that already express the same ideas in every possible context. If you find a concrete context in which there is no word sufficiently expressing the same idea, that's when you create a new one or borrow one: like zeitgeist, a German word that could just as well have been translated as "spirit of the times" or angst, another German word that literally means fear or dread.
A shame that article dismissed this so easily - doesn't paint a good picture on the author and makes me question what else did the author skim over.
But the point may have been made im Scherz, an expression that may exist in English, but to which some of its transatlantic speakers have an ambivalent relation.