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October 3, 2007
I Don't Know What I'm Talking About
As I've said, I'm working on a formal paper that proposes an abnormal understanding of the Hebrew expression מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר, "he who pisseth against the wall." Over the last couple of days, it has dawned on me that I don't know what I am talking about. Many scholars refer to this phrase as a metaphor. Well, if it is a metaphor, it is an implicit metaphor because the target is implied. The only thing we have is the source. Something (the target) is a pisser against the wall (the source). But is it rather that something is like a pisser against the wall? In that case, it would be a simile. Or maybe this phrase is metonymy.
Because the full trope is only implied, it may never be possible to know with certainty. In one way, it doesn't matter much to the point I want to make. But the important word in the last sentence is much. Certain subtleties of interpretation rest on exactly what kind of trope I am dealing with. I can even tell a story that says that the expression is a mixed metonymy and simile. But I won't tell that story here.
This new worry is the fault of Steven Pinker. Sunday afternoon Shirley and I went to hear him pitch his new book The Stuff of Thought; Language as a Window into Human Nature at Caltech. Yesterday I bought it.
Posted by Duane Smith at October 3, 2007 7:37 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |
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Comments
I've assumed it means "anything", primarily "any descendants". When all that you have has been destroyed so that you're bereft of all offspring and everyone else, you're left without even "piss on the wall".
Is that translation not likely to be accurate?
mnuez
Posted by: mnuez at October 3, 2007 9:41 PM
mnuez
That is an interesting idea, but not one that is expressed in the literature or the Rabbis in exactly that way. With a few exceptions (scholars who, with some small reason, think it refers to young boys), the target of the trope is generally taken to be a man or a last man. But why, in a previous post I outlined the possibilities. As you may have seen my own view is somewhat different. If the grammar is correctly understood, the trope refers to the pisser and not the piss. On the other hand, the various contexts clearly imply genocide as you indicated.
Posted by: Duane at October 3, 2007 9:58 PM
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