Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

Dear Anne and all on Contré-Conference,

A very interesting set of ideas to compare! “Collections” and “Articulation.”

“Collection” is the act or process of collecting or gathering. “Collection” also refers to that which is collected, such as coins, stamps, etc. Although a collection may be organized into certain order or rules, the rules of a “collection” is based on a logic that is more semantic than syntactic.

In “articulation”, the elements of precision, logic, rules and grammar are very significant. “Articulation” or “articulate” comes from Latin “articulatus” and “articulare” meaning “furnished with joints” (as in Zoological terms referring to invertebrates with segmented bodies, also in Anatomical terms, the bone in the base of the lower jaw of most vertebrates except mammals - i.e. the jaw articulates with the quadratic bone), and meaning “to divide into joints or segments.” In language or speech (mechanical, vocal or other), “articulate” is characterized by division into words and syllables, thus making making it possible to distinguish articulate sounds from other sounds.

A person is also said to “collect himself” or “collect his thoughts” - this is with reference to a person’s “composure.” “Composure” is from “compose” meaning “to form by putting together two or more elements” (as in “com + poser, to place”). The difference between “compose” and “articulate” is that “compose” means “to form the substance of or part of the substance of something or to constitute something,” whereas “articulate” does not try to constitute or form the substance of something. Rather, articulate is a more active, basic and primal construction. Composition, like collection, involves the combination of words to form compound words, but articulation involves the forming of the syllables that form words; composition involves grammar but articulation involves the formal logic of syllabication which comes before any process of grammar. Articulation is the atomic level of molecular compounds.

Another way of looking at the differences could perhaps be that in “articulation,” the “atoms” (or syllables or symbols) themselves carry rules of connectivity; whereas in “collection” or “composition,” the “atoms” are not so important but rather the “molecules” (words and compound words) are considered more important because they carry rules of substance or meaning. In “collection” or “composition” therefore, there is a mind-body split, but not in “articulation.” This is whay I said that “articulation” is an aesthetic equilibrium between kaluluwa (knowledge), wika (language) and ginhawa (body).

An aside, one of the more interesting definitions of “collection” is from the Latin “collecta” (in English “collect”) with the liturgical meaning: “short comprehensive prayers used in the Western churches, as in the Mass and Communion service, and in the Churches of the Anglican Communion, also in morning or evening prayer.” The collect is almost always addressed to the Father, commemorating a special season, occasion, condition, and offering a petition usually “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is also something called “Collect of the Day” which are prayers of specific format that are said at specific time of day.

Here, “Collect” is somehow imbued with articulate significance because it seems to have its own logical grammar, a grammar that preserves structure in a syntactical (spatio-temporal) sense and not merely in a representational sense.

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