In "Naturalism without tears", this blog, our excellent correspondent L. J. Kramer has expanded on the 'various idioms' relating to dead:
i. He is dead
ii. He kicked the bucket
iii. He _is_ kicking the bucket +> ?? He is dying
iv. He is fertilising the daffodils (WoW v)
v. He is helping the grass to grow
vi. He is pushing up the daisies
vii. ?? He bought a farm.
viii. He bought _the_ farm.
ix. He joined the featherly choir.
x. He ceased to be a spatio-temporal continuant (Strawson, Individuals: an essay in descriptive metaphysics)
xi. He passed.
xii. He passed _away_.
xiii. He _died_.
etc.
Apparently, Anglo-Phones have a problem with 'death'. Not so the Germans. As the Austrian engineer wittily commented, "To die is not a part of life".
And then some bad'uns say, "Life is a blog and then you die".
"Get a life". Shouldn't you answer _them_ by telling them to get a death, their-selves?
JLS
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The philosophical point I would like to consider -- but all are welcomes: a space is a place with _many_ points -- is that
ReplyDelete1. Jack is dead.
amounts to a reference to a Gricean 'vacuous name' (vide his "Vacuous Names"), to wit: "Jack".
Therefore, it is neither true nor false.
cfr.
ii. ??The present King of France is dead.