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So why the two words then?
Bingley
Bingley
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Hi Bingley,
first I hesitated, but now I think it's time that a chemist takes over.
The language of chemistry is a curious, fuzzy mix of tradition and and attempted systematics. The French chemist Pierre Laszlo has been delving into this for a while. But the following is from my own kitchen.
"Alkali" is a very old word, used for solutions of soda ash and potash (made from wood ashes) long before molecules, ionic equilibria and pH were introduced, simply based on the effect that such solutions cause: slippery skin, color change of some natural colorants e.g. red beet. "Alkali" (for carbonates and hydroxides of sodium, potassium..) and "alkaline" (for anything with pH higher than 7), also nowadays are more practice-based terms. "Base" on the other hand, is a more general and more theory-oriented term, also covering organic molecules, as long as they can "react" or "pair up" with an "acid". The trouble is that many molecules can be an acid and a base at the same time, like water for example. It entirely depends on the partner you confront it with. So "alkali" is more closely linked to the material identity, whereas "base" indicates behavior of a substance in a given situation. It only has an operational definition.
If you desire more about such curiousities, just tell me.
(By the way, I find your posts very rich and stimulating)
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Last night it rained hammer handles near my home. I have never seen that kind of lightning and thunder before. At around 3 a.m, along with heavy rain, for at least 15-20 minutes there was constant lightning - like a flickering tube light. It just wouldn't stop! It was weird and unsettling. And along with the lightning was a continuous low thunder. The reason why I am writing this is while I buried my head under a pillow to shut out the nonstop light and sound (I was beginning to think it a prediction of doom for all things I had to do today), I tried to think of a word to describe this and the only word that kept coming to me was borborygmus...
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wsieber--
COOL !! Thanks! I LOVE stuff--'scuse me, information!--like that! What is, IS, and what isn't, ISN'T !
Please enlighten me further any time you care to! Private,
if you like, unless a bunch of others would like it too.
Thanks in advance,
Jackie
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In reply to:
(By the way, I find your posts very rich and stimulating)
Isn't it marvellous what a range of expertise we collectively on this board can call on.
Bingley
Bingley
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Hi Jackie,
To satisfy your wish at least to a certain extent, you might look up
http://www.madsci.org/
This is a lively interface between scientists and, aehm.., normal people. It can be searched by keywords and by disciplines.
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Ohmigawd, I'm going to be up all night!
Gee-mi-nee, I want to know everything!
Though I must say that none of my best friends
would describe me as "normal"! :-)
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>So why the two words then?< Answering this from a purely linguistic point of view, and apolgies to wsieber for appearing to spurn all your chemical expertise, but I'm not doing really, believe me!) why not? A huge/enormous/gigantic/immense number/quantity/amount of English words can substitute for/replace each other without loss/reduction of understanding/comprehension. Isn't that the underlying and wonderful delight of language? 
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Hi Bridget,
>why not?...
Isn't that the underlying and wonderful delight of language?<
I don't see this as a contradiction to my musings. On the contrary. A "synonymous" Word replaces another perfectly only if you reduce it to the naked basic (sic) thing signified by it (significatum). Communication implies much more: there is a specific aura surrounding each of the synonyms. You have to take this into account if you want to come close to recreating the intended meaning in the reader's mind. Or maybe this is just specifically germanic?? (see the thread "looking for").
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>Communication implies much more: there is a specific aura surrounding each of the synonyms. <
That's really what I mean about the underlying and wonderful delight of language. Especially when you consider that the subtle differentiation between two synonyms in one person's mind can be a lot less than the difference between one single word in two people's mind.
IT's actually amazing that we ever communicate at all.
(My last post was meant to be tongue in cheek - I should have put some markup in to signify that in the absence of tone of voice!)
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