You're forgetting that any word they use can mean anything they want it to. Functionally, their lexicon is infinite. They can, and do, express things far exceeding their comprehension.
It seems, at least at first blush, hard to believe. I've known many brilliant people in literary studies--huge vocabularies--who are on the Left. Perhaps becoming a committed left-winger, though, tends to reduce fluency by mandating the repetition of key phrases. But even that seems a stretch, I must admit. Still, fascinating tidbit.
Perhaps I ought to have said 'self-limiting'. The repetition of phrases and jargon from the Lacan/Derrida/Foucault/Butler Approved Lexicon is indeed the core of the issue. There is probably also a list of words once used by C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton which are forbidden by academic publishers.
Back in 1988, I first encountered Jacques Derrida in grad school. When probed to see if I understood the method and the style I threw up a fresh crunchy word salad with a nice ginger sesame (sticky sweet) vinaigrette just to demonstrate I could follow the bouncing ball. When I turned in my first paper, however, I was skewered for not playing in the "major league." My response was this: "Just because I can 'Derrida,' why would I want to?
How do you proofread people who routinely redefine the entire lexicon on the fly?
You'd be surprised. Postmodernist academics have an astonishingly limited vocabulary.
You're forgetting that any word they use can mean anything they want it to. Functionally, their lexicon is infinite. They can, and do, express things far exceeding their comprehension.
I didn't know that!
It seems, at least at first blush, hard to believe. I've known many brilliant people in literary studies--huge vocabularies--who are on the Left. Perhaps becoming a committed left-winger, though, tends to reduce fluency by mandating the repetition of key phrases. But even that seems a stretch, I must admit. Still, fascinating tidbit.
Perhaps I ought to have said 'self-limiting'. The repetition of phrases and jargon from the Lacan/Derrida/Foucault/Butler Approved Lexicon is indeed the core of the issue. There is probably also a list of words once used by C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton which are forbidden by academic publishers.
I'm sure that's the case.
Back in 1988, I first encountered Jacques Derrida in grad school. When probed to see if I understood the method and the style I threw up a fresh crunchy word salad with a nice ginger sesame (sticky sweet) vinaigrette just to demonstrate I could follow the bouncing ball. When I turned in my first paper, however, I was skewered for not playing in the "major league." My response was this: "Just because I can 'Derrida,' why would I want to?