A Space That Will Never Be Filled

Sharp Communication and the Simultaneity of Opposites

Bibliographic Data

ID2225893
AuthorsAlex Pillen (0000-0003-4702-8281, University College London, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume58
Issue6
Pages718-738
Publication date2017-12-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/694760
OpenAlexW2767433310
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited41

A disregard for human traditions, the brutality of predation, sacrifice, and sexual desire are ingrained in languages across cultures. This paper concerns a key linguistic feature reflecting this predicament: utterances that encapsulate their opposite and effectuate a U-turn in meaning. This mode of communication stands out as a representation of the friction between incommensurable worlds-conceived together. An enemy's perspective or an unpalatable reality finds a host within language. I embark upon a multidisciplinary search for examples of such utterances and present an assemblage of five pertinent images. Each of these makes a distinct conceptual contribution. Vigilance and an awareness of other points of view underpin most of the utterances under study, which I propose to call "sharp communication" at the intersection of opposing perspectives

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Geography · Intersection (aeronautics · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Representation · Representation (politics · Simultaneity · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Artificial Intelligence · Communication · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Law · Philosophy · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism

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