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Re: Sacred names



Don:
Words are not like basketball jersey numbers; they don't get
"retired" to one particular usage or meaning.  

Point for Don from his POV (which I'm siding a bit more with) but Don, I 
think a more accurate analogy of Tina' POV is that she feels the word *monk* 
IS like a retired basketball jersey and she feels Ric has pulled that number 
out of retirement and started wearing it for himself. I don't think we can 
look at the word *monk* that way but  from her POV she's right.

Don again:
Names are just
words, and they do not have a unique mapping from object to subject.

Here I disagree. Words do have a unique mapping from object to subject but 
it's subjective. Some will hear the word *monk* and depending on their 
personal history they will associate something with the word -- a Catholic 
will think of men on monastic journeys and cloisters, a jazz afficianado will 
think of you know who, an animal lover may think of a variety of animals, a 
Brit may think of a homeless person. The point is the object (or word) will 
mean something special when heard by the subject (or hearer)

Tina:
 i'm talking about musicians. generically,
if someone says, hey, have you heard this monk album,
i'm sorry, very few people are going to think of rich
hordinski, they'll think of Thelonius Monk,

Point for Tina. But Tina, that's only if they are a jazz afficianado. IF they 
aren't they will more than likely just say "who?" Besides, I really don't 
think even Monk himself would say that his name is THAT sacred. And, I don't 
hear a lot of CHristians bothered by band names like Jesus Jones, The Jesus 
and Mary Chain, etc. They know who the real Jesus is and Monk fans know who 
the real Monk is.

Tina again:
dylan may have
taken his name from dylan thomas, but dylan thomas
wasn't a musician 

Here I disagree to a degree. The only reason people didn't think of Dylan 
Thomas when they heard the name Dylan was because Mr. Zimmerman became a 
whole lot more popular so for the most part the general public would think of 
Dylan. But still, a poet would think of DT not BD when someone mentioned 
Dylan. Again, it's subjective.
  Words aren't limited to a particular medium. Words are limited by the 
popularity of a particular meaning. With names it's the popularity of a 
particular person. If someone named their band *The Michael Jordon's* they 
would have to become very popular for people to associate that name with a 
band and not a basketball player. Monk (Ric) would have to become very 
popular before he made a dent in the mind of a jazz lover's association with 
the word monk.

peace,
kevin 
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