Personal Blogs

All my posts: https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?u=zw219551

or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.

I am not on YouTube or social media

[ 6 minute read ]

Heterodoxy or word-wizards win

I wonder just how much we understand each other. I once met a woman who could speak four languages fluently, a polyglot. I said to her I would be able to speak English and she would not be able to understand me. She was fluent in English at least to C1 level. She replied that she could understand most accents in the UK. Obviously, being British and living in a melting-pot of people in the south of England I have heard a few including a lot of accents from overseas; but that is not what I meant. I was certain that she has a working knowledge of English and a good one at that. I believed I could use a combination of English words that most people have never used. In her line of work and what she had told me of the roles she had filled in the UK I expected that many words I know would be absent from her lexicon. 

I was in an environment where all the staff have degrees. They ought to have a good grasp of the language of the country in which they studied, though not necessarily their own native language. I was in England. I spoke to one chap and said I would be able to speak English and he would not be able to understand me. He looked skeptical. 

As an example, I only have to say, 'autocratic revisionist' in a sentence and many people's thought processes would temporarily freeze while they process the sum of these two words pushed together, the next few words if they do not relate to the concept would not give a clue as to what I meant by autocratic revisionist and a measure of confusion may ensue while they scrambled for references in my prior words. That is my theory at least. Of course, many people would completely understand what an autocratic revisionist is, yet they may have to consider whether my opinion or statement is valid. That takes time. It is the next words that might be misunderstood.

However, most of us don't want to confuse someone else; quite simply because most of us want to communicate, not win. 

When I say the best tool I can think of that I have found most useful is a thesaurus, I mean a real book with pages. An online thesaurus promotes linear learning. I eschew linear learning. It is exceedingly difficult for me to learn along only a prescribed route. This means I learn new words because I go 'off the beaten track'. For example, I originally wrote 'proscribed' but remembered that there the UK government recently considered an ideology to be proscribed, as in 'not allowed'. I was certain that I should use 'proscibed' in my sentence but there was some doubt too. I picked up Roget's Thesaurus, an invaluable book that if anyone has a budding writer in the family should consider it to be an admirably excellent choice as a present for them. I saw the word 'heterodox'. That's interesting I thought. 

Heterodoxy means 'other person's doxy' 

      'Curiouser and curiouser,' said Alice.

One might think what on earth is a doxy. You have already heard it and used it in 'orthodox' or 'unorthodox' You would be able to say, 'That is your doxy, not mine!' in a polite argument. Heterodoxy in Roget's Thesaurus has a lot of definitions listed as mostly single words. Essentially, it means 'personal judgement'; 'misbelief'; 'superstition' and much more in between. It goes on though; for half a page of what is a normal size hardback book with a small font. As I suspected, the definitions swiftly move towards how the word is probably meant to be considered; towards heresy, but not before brushing over 'perversion of the truth'.

This is fascinating to me because it opens up a new way to understand people in the world in which we live.

'Heterodoxy' indicates a mistaken belief, which could just be from poor advice or absence of education or experience (you can't attack someone for that!); a considered opinion based on some empiricism though this may be through observing coincidences or even causalities (If you break the only mirror in the house when mirrors are hard to come by, and expensive, you might expect your family to give you some grief for a while and, when you are not looking, play tricks on you in a continuance of mean spite, for seven years, or until enough money can be saved from sixteen hours toil each day). 'Heterodoxy' also opens up the idea that someone sets out to deceive (perversion of the truth).

Heaven forbid that someone should be caught spouting latitudinarianism in public! 

       'I'm sorry are you talking to me?'

I looked to see if 'homodoxy' means trying to boost one's own confidence through talking to oneself, but it is not in my 1962 Roget's Thesaurus. It can be found online though. It means orthodox, following doctrine or creed. In the spirit of the expansiveness of 'heterodoxy' I much prefer my own definition of homodoxy as a synonym for 'mantric soliloquy' though.

It rather reminds me of when I used to run three miles home from the pub on a Friday night. Almost the whole journey was along a footpath alongside a river and by fields. There were two thickets to pass through and years before, people used to pitch tents in them when they were homeless. Not the homeless people you find on the street today, just young men living ordinary lives while living in tents, and only in Summer.

When I would run home from the pub, I would allow my breath to make noises in my larynx both on the inhale and exhale, breathing through my mouth, in time with my steps. This was, inhale for three steps and exhale for three steps; so I sounded a bit like a stereotypical 'cowboy and Indian film' native American Indian in Americaland. 'huuh, huuh, huuh' then a little higher tone on the in-breath 'HUUH, HUUH, HUUH'. Meanwhile, my feet were pounding the ground in time.

 One night, a policeman stopped me, wide-eyed and looking a little worried. He and his comrades had been searching in the smaller thicket.

       'Have you seen a young lad in there? He's run away from home.' he asked, pointing back into the very dark thicket I had just come out of.

       'No.' I went on my way with my pounding feet and huuhing.

There is no way a young lad would have shown himself in the pitch black thicket when there are feet pounding and a huuh, huuh, huuh chant was coming towards him. I am certain that if the lad had been in the thicket, he soon went running home to safety. I would have, even as an invincible adult in my twenties.

The mantric message was to myself to keep the rhythm of my breathing so I kept running. The message the police-people got was, strange things can come out of the dark when you are not expecting them; and I suppose if the young lad had heard it, the message was: Go home and face the music for whatever you have done; it is much less scary.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/homodoxy