On Apr 6, 2006, at 6:53 AM, Katharine Thayer wrote:
> Etienne,
> A couple of general comments first, then a couple of specific  
> comments embedded below:
>
> I'm not sure why everyone is beating me over the head with top-down  
> theory. I "get" top-down theory.  And if it makes y'all feel  
> better, I'll say that top-down has always made more sense to me  
> than, say, the paper-attracts-dichromate theory.  I'm just saying  
> there's very little evidence either way, and also there is this  
> observation of the tonal inversion thing that makes top-down theory  
> problematic for gum, which problem none of the advocates for this  
> theory have addressed in this discussion.   I've been accused of  
> being a blind advocate of top-down theory  because I had some  
> questions about the dichromate-attracts-paper theory, and now it  
> seems I'm being called an idiot because I say that there are  
> observations that make top-down theory problematic for gum.
Since I addressed this post to Etienne, I should probably clarify  
that it wasn't Etienne I was referring to here. Etienne's post seemed  
an earnest and thoughtful attempt to consider the issues,
kt
Received on Thu Apr  6 08:23:33 2006
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