> "A" explains why I said "Shit!", but that doesn't make
> it the meaning of it. I don't think expletives are
> isomorphic. Anyone disagree?
I suspect that expletives may be isomorphic in the same sense that a CAGE
piece of music is isomorphic; that is, given enough "context", the meaning
of the expletive will also be clear.
On the other hand, can one not usually map an expletive to "I have done
something wrong/bad"[1]? In this sense, certainly expletives are
isomorphic, just as much as any other piece of language.
ERiC
[1] The most obvious counter-example is when an expletive gets mapped to
the opposite; e.g. "hot-damn" for when something is really going your way!