25. Seven-ish Sayings From My Thought Language

(A follow-on to post 4, “Seven-ish Words From My Thought Language”. Read that first or this will make less sense.)

An important part of [Language] is its use of set phrases and proverbs, to the point that there are dictionaries of those as well. To that end, here’s seven entries in a sayings-dictionary that will never exist, even though it should. We may note that just as [Language]’s words are fairly freely modifiable and its word classes are almost always open, [Language]’s sayings often take the form of snow-clones - phrases or sentences that have a natural way to adapt or tailor them to your specific meaning and situation - as well as functioning just as well as phrases incorporated into sentences, to the point that some of them are dependent clauses.


“And then the house burned down.” - A general-purpose apotropaic against thinking too hard about counterfactuals, be they beautiful or horrible. After all, you can dream all you like about how your life might have been vastly better if you took up on that one opportunity, or married that potential partner, or had had an easier time of that job or schooling, and then managed to buy a house… but have you accounted for the counterfact that your house then burned down, killing all inside? You certainly did not. Taken from a popular (real-world) fantasy author; in the original context, an old and powerful wizard is recounting to the old and powerful witch that he once had a crush on about how his life might have gone if he’d proposed marriage long decades ago, and the witch responds by asking him about the counterfactual house fire.

“Can I, though?” - Also seen commonly as “Is it, though?”, “Does it, though?”, or more generally any tag question directly relevant to your current situation. Often said in response to a recommendation someone else has given you or an opinion someone else has expressed; denotationally expresses doubts about that recommendation or opinion, be they practical, value-based, inferential, perceptive, or somehow else; connotationally expresses actual disagreement and potentially a questioning of the opinion-expresser’s generative beliefs.

“Do I believe that?” - One of the more straightforward sayings of [Language], and one that any given speaker of [Language] asks themself quietly a few times in any given week. Always something that a person asks themself, sometimes as an aside during a conversation. Denotationally expresses frank doubt; connotationally has no valence one way or the other - it’s something you might say about something you’re relatively sure about just as well as something you severely misdoubt. Almost always followed up by an answer to oneself, which can range anywhere from “Nah, there’s no way I believe that(, because X)” to “Yeah, I totally believe that(- I forgot about Y)” and including such other common answers as “I think I believe that”, “I don’t know that I believe that”, “I can pretend to believe that for now”, “Wait, why should I believe that?” (directed with sincere intent at a conversational partner!), and in more formal settings, “I [with-credence: P] believe that”. Taken with thanks from DG.

“Sun’s always setting, world’s always ending.” - A proverb to remind yourself or someone else both of the unstinting passage of time and of the massive timescales that the universe operates on. Connotationally, can either be a call to action - “daylight’s burning!” - or a chiding recommendation not to get too caught up in the moment - after all, the world is ALWAYS ending. Occasionally used to somberly mark the end stages of some enjoyable event or cherished person’s life.

“What if not that?” - A very short set phrase. Almost always either follows a description of a convoluted and painful course of action, a recounting of an equally convoluted and painful part of history leading up to the present day or story-present, or as a direct reply to a proposed plan. Denotationally a reminder that one could, in fact, choose to do literally anything else; connotationally, a recommendation to do one of the somethings else.

“...which will probably have an impact on the trout population.” - A way to allude to the surely disastrous consequences of some massive intervention or cataclysm without upsetting anyone too badly by asking them to think about the actual end of the world playing out. Examples might include nuclear war, a second Carrington Event, the Sun exploding, or the advent and uncontrolled release of [gray-goo]. Taken from the caption of an image of a large asteroid impacting the Earth.

“$abstraction is/are real and can hurt you.” - Another fairly straightforward saying - really more of a proverb. “$Abstraction” here stands in for any abstract concept that nonetheless has a life of its own - “infinity” is a popular one, as are “the economy”, “game theory”, assorted invisible phenomena in physics/chemistry/biology, “reputations”, and “semantic inclarity”. It pays to keep track of the fact that abstractions are real, even if they don’t house themselves in any specific bit of matter!


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