The Passed Particle Mystery Deepens
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 21, 2008
IN LANGUAGE, there's a conventional co-occurrence of topic and form that allows most communication to happen joltlessly.
Consider the range of topics expected in a pulpit address to congregants by a minister of religion. Consider a letter to the editor of a daily: it's more likely a reaction to recently reported events than it is, say, a rant about your mother-in-law. A eulogy delivered to family and friends of a recently deceased is also likely to do some things and not others. It's a core part of being acculturated that one knows what (topic) goes with what (form). As writer Michael Gurr puts it, "Give me a national disaster and I'll throw Amazing Grace at it."Imagine my surprise, then, to see some graffiti painted on a Bondi Junction wall - one word, "Particles" - large, neat, reddish letters, greyish background. My first response - after swerving to avoid an accident occasioned by the double-take - was to think of particles qua grammatical category. This induced no penny-dropping. Later, at dictionary.com, the linguistic category was confirmed, along with four more senses. The first, from ordinary language, is a measure (very small) of quantity, eg, a particle of dust. The second, from physics, refers to one small constituent of matter wherein motion is negligible. The third, from law, refers to a clause in a document - perhaps originating in a blending of "part" and "article". The last, from Catholicism, refers to a small piece of the host given to each lay communicant in a Eucharistic service.Now, as I know as little about physics as about the Eucharist, the only particles I'm fit to comment on are the linguistic kind. At the risk of saying more about linguists than about particles, let it be known that these pesky items are much contested by those who care. In my nutshell at least, a particle is the small, prepositiony-looking word that is a constituent of a phrasal verb (eg, "she looked up the dictionary"). As distinct from that same, small, prepositiony-looking word that actually is a preposition, following a single-unit verb (eg, "she looked up the chimney"), conveying relational information, often directional in sense. Even so, I remain flummoxed: why would a graffitist be moved to comment on this well-contested but harmless little category of words? But wait - breaking news - more data to hand. I'm advised that another "Particles" has been spray-painted on a wall of the local Catholic church. Maybe it is the Eucharist after all.Plot thickens; mystery deepens.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald