"preceded" to the idea of precedence on a printed sheet, rather than
elaborate entries into a banquet room.
Achilles: All right. But what exactly do you mean by "quotation" here?
Tortoise: When you discuss a word or a phrase, you conventionally put it
in quotes. For example, I can say,
The word "philosopher" has five letters.
Here, I put "philosopher" in quotes to show that I am speaking about
the WORD "philosopher" rather than about a philosopher in the flesh.
This is called the USE-MENTION distinction.
Achilles: Oh?
Tortoise: Let me explain. Suppose I were to say to you,
Philosophers make lots of money.
Here, I would be USING the word to manufacture an image in your
mind of a 'twinkle-eyed sage with bulging moneybags. But when I put
this word-or any word-in quotes, I subtract out its meaning and
connotation~, and am left only with some marks on paper, or some
sounds. That is called "MENTION". Nothing about the word matters,
other than its typographical aspects-any meaning it might have is
ignored.
Achilles: It reminds me of using a violin as a fly swatter. Or should I say
"mentioning"? Nothing about the violin matters, other than its
solidity-any meaning or function it might have is being ignored.
Come to think of it, I guess the fly is being treated that way, too.
Tortoise: Those are sensible, if shghtly unorthodox, extensions of the
use-mention distinction. But now, I want you to think about preceding
something by its own quotation.
Achilles: All right. Would this be correct?
Tortoise:
Achilles:"HUBB'\''' HUBBA
Good. Try another.
All right.
"'PLOP' IS NOT THE TITLE OF ANY BOOK, SO FAR AS I KNOW"
'PLOP' IS NOT THE TITLE OF A~Y BOOK, SO FAR AS I KNOW.Tortoise: Now this example can be modified into quite an interesting
specimen, simply by dropping 'Plop'.
Achilles: Really? Let me see what you mean. It becomes
"IS NOT THE TITLE OF ANY BOOK, SO FAR AS I KNOW"
IS NOT THE TITLE OF ANY BOOK, SO FAR AS I KNOW.Tortoise: You see, you have made a sentence.
Achilles: So I have. It is a sentence about the phrase "is not the title of any
book, so far as I know", and quite a silly one, too.
Tortoise: Why silly?(^434) Air on C's String