meaning of takhlis

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

Lori and others,
        As a number of people have written in, both on and off list, the
word "takhlis" in Yiddish does not in fact mean "task", as I wrongly
stated yesterday, but "practical purpose," "end result," and (by
extension) "important business." I apologize for adding to the confusion.

        In trying to understand how the confusion arose in my mind, I
realized that the two meanings, though distinct, can often be closely
related. What is this relation?

        When we say "the PURPOSE of this group is to discuss Jewish
music," and "the TASK of this group is to discuss Jewish music," from
the standpoint of the agent we are saying virtually the same thing,
because the meanings are related by METONYMY, a trope (figure of speech)
in which a cause is substituted for an effect, a container for something
contained, an end for a means -- or vice-versa. 

        The reason this works is because ends and means, causes and
effects, etc., are CORRELATIVE PAIRS, i.e., you couldn't have one
without the other, so one implies the other. A task implies a purpose
or motive for which it is carried out, and a purpose implies that 
there are tasks that need to be accomplished in order to achieve it.

In the above example, if the statements have virtually the same 
meaning, it is because of a metonymy of end (purpose) and means (task).

The proper term for "task" in Yiddish is _uvde_, or _baderfenish_.

Itsik-Leyb

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