Editing 1734: Reductionism
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The second letter that is explained is "E", a {{w|vowel}}. In modern English spelling, the letter "E" is used – alone or in combination – to represent a number of different vowel sounds (compare "gene", "bed", "crepe"). In the word "reductionism", the "E" can be pronounced as /ɪ/ ("riductionism"), /iː/ ("reeductionism") or /ə/ ("ruductionism"), depending on dialect and emphasis, but the comic is talking about the sound used to pronounce the letter itself, /iː/ ("long E"). It explains that this vowel sound was normally represented with the letter "I" until the 1500's. This is a reference to the {{w|Great Vowel Shift}}, a change in the pronunciation of many English vowels around that time. Before then, a word like "see" was pronounced /seː/ (approximately "seh", with no diphthong), while a word like "bite" was pronounced /biːt/ ("beet"). So in modern English pronunciation, the "long E" sound is the same as what the "long I" spelling used to represent. | The second letter that is explained is "E", a {{w|vowel}}. In modern English spelling, the letter "E" is used – alone or in combination – to represent a number of different vowel sounds (compare "gene", "bed", "crepe"). In the word "reductionism", the "E" can be pronounced as /ɪ/ ("riductionism"), /iː/ ("reeductionism") or /ə/ ("ruductionism"), depending on dialect and emphasis, but the comic is talking about the sound used to pronounce the letter itself, /iː/ ("long E"). It explains that this vowel sound was normally represented with the letter "I" until the 1500's. This is a reference to the {{w|Great Vowel Shift}}, a change in the pronunciation of many English vowels around that time. Before then, a word like "see" was pronounced /seː/ (approximately "seh", with no diphthong), while a word like "bite" was pronounced /biːt/ ("beet"). So in modern English pronunciation, the "long E" sound is the same as what the "long I" spelling used to represent. | ||
− | In the title text, two people are speaking. The first speaker | + | In the title text, two people are speaking. The first speaker have noticed that "physics people can be a little on the reductionist side". (Randall would consider himself a physicist). The physicist then says that it is a ridiculous notion. He challenges the other to "Name ONE reductionist word I've ever said." But by claiming he is not a reductionist by focusing on the individual words, like one can avoid ever saying a single reductionist word, the physicist overlooks the fact that reductionism is an emergent property of sentences. By focusing on individual words in this way the speaker proves them-self a reductionist, in the very act of trying to refute this accusation. |
Reductionism has previously appeared [[1416:_Pixels#Holism.2C_Reductionism.2C_Mu|deep down]] in [[1416: Pixels]]. | Reductionism has previously appeared [[1416:_Pixels#Holism.2C_Reductionism.2C_Mu|deep down]] in [[1416: Pixels]]. |