Language

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I was slightly offended by John Rosenthal's editorial, "Steering and Meaning," (December 2, 1986). Mr. Rosenthal seems to have forgotten that many members of the Harvard community study science, and that many more have long held an interest in it. It is my hunch that scientists, who like to make empirical observations about their environment, have known the meanings of most of the phrases cited by Mr. Rosenthal from the time they were able to read them.

For instance, to anyone with a flair for chemistry, understanding the meanings of most terms found on the outside of commercially-packaged food or health-care products pose little problem. Partially hydrogenated soybean oil is simply oil extracted from soybeans, which contains several double-bonded carbon atoms per molecule, that has been reacted with hydrogen and a catalyst. This process breaks some of the double bonds, enabling a few more of the carbon atoms to accept electrons from the hydrogen. Partial or complete hydrogenation is performed to make a substance remain solid at higher temperatures.

Scrod is a catch-all term for any fish fillet that becomes white when cooked. It usually refers to cod or haddock, but on good fishing days can denote halibut and other flakier varieties. Lemon juice that has been dried (dehydrated), and then moistened again is said to have been reconstituted. Dental floss is usually made of fine strings of nylon. If waxed, the strings tend to fray less often during use. Unwaxed pieces, however, are thinner and can fit better in small cracks. And rack and pinyon steering is the term for a geared steering mechanism first found in European cars. The system has fewer linkages than ordinary steering (one rather than five or six) so that the steering wheel's motion is transferred more completely to the bar connecting the wheels and hence the wheels. The rack, which is perpendicular to the steering rod, is this connecting bar. On the rack is the pinyon, or gears themselves. (I must admit that I did not learn about most of the parts of the automobile until my '71 Olds broke down in the wilderness of Oregon, requiring $3000 in repairs.)

Perhaps Mr. Rosenthal has overlooked the fact that many non-humanities concentrators are mystified by the ubiquitous terms with which he may be more familiar. A friend recently informed me that money laundering is the act of using stolen or swindled money for corrupt purposes. The phrase comes from the olden days when crooks sometimes obtained new bills whose serial numbers were not known, and actually washed them in a washing mashine filled with coffee. This sullied the money so that the thieves could use it for their own purposes without fear of the bills' being traced.

There is tremendous misuse of words and phrases which stems from ignorance about the words' definitions. Some of this is particularly common in the speech of people outside the fields of humanities from which these words come. Often we hear that deconstructionism is the hottest new wave in literary analysis. But how many of us know even a little about how it works? And how many of us forget that rationalism refers specifically to the belief that humans have a cognitive faculty which allows for reason independent of experience (it does not simply refer to the process of "thinking logically") and that empiricism refers to the belief that all ideas are derived from sensory perceptions? How many users know the difference between a regular grand jury and a grand jury? And how many of us know enough about German literature to use sturm und drang correctly? Or about the Peloponnesian War which inspired some historian to coin Pyrrhic victory, to make a golden apple of this idiom, rather than dilute its meaning every time we use it?

Mr. Rosenthal's article would have been better if he had either (1) mentioned that he was not a scientist, and then complained about the use of scientific terms among and for non-scientists, or (2) discussed terms less familiar to non-humanities concentrators or to a greater percentage of the Harvard community as well. Yet despite the article's shortcomings, Mr. Rosenthal's point--that we might want to know more about the phrases we encounter and use--can be welltaken. Linda L. Hermer '88-'89

Editor's Note: The phrase Pyhrric victory was not inspired by the Peloponnesian War but by the disastrous strategies of the Greek king Pyhrrus in his war against the Romans in the Italian region of Magna Graecia.