# The Meaning of Meaning Is a Path to Personal Power by Bryant McGill > “Epistemology asks how anything is known, and ontology asks what anything is, and the meaning of meaning sits where those two questions meet language. Studying the morphology of words, their roots, prefixes, suffixes, phonemes, and vowel pivots, reveals the connective tissue that links one meaning to another. The personal power this study yields is intelligence: the ability to see through the negative spaces between words to the patterns that join them.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream (Jun 2016)* ## Sources and Context - **Authoritative developed source:** [[livestreams/Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream|Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream]] — the Reminder reproduces the complete marked quotation object without alteration. For this workflow, the developed livestream document is the source authority. - **Broadcast passage:** In the June 1, 2016 broadcast, roughly 00:21:30 to 00:27:00, the speaker moves from polarity as the source of energy (positive and negative, on and off, zeros and ones, good and bad; see [[wiki/Binary Opposition|binary opposition]]) to [[wiki/Semiotic Twins|semiotic twins]] in [[wiki/Linguistics|linguistics]], [[wiki/Epistemology|epistemology]], [[wiki/Ontology|ontology]], the meaning of meaning ([[wiki/Semantics|semantics]]), symbolic memory ([[wiki/Symbolic Representation|symbolic representation]]), [[wiki/Parse Tree|parse trees]], and control over [[wiki/Lexicon|lexicons]]. - **Conceptual context:** The point develops the broadcast's statement that contemplating epistemology, ontology, and the meaning of meaning serves the aim of harnessing personal power. The power is intelligence gained through [[wiki/Morphology|morphology]] and [[wiki/Etymology|etymology]], reading words through their parts and the [[wiki/Negative Space|negative spaces]] between them. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Livestreams Collection|Livestreams Collection]] - **Article:** [[articles/Relational Intelligence and Ontological Coherence at Scale|Relational Intelligence and Ontological Coherence at Scale]] - **Article:** [[articles/Negative Epistemology and the Accumulation of Non-Knowledge for Survival (triptych)|Negative Epistemology and the Accumulation of Non-Knowledge for Survival]] - **Livestream:** [[livestreams/Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream|Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Ontology|Ontology]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Epistemology asks how anything is known, and ontology asks what anything is, and the meaning of meaning sits where those two questions meet language. Studying the morphology of words, their roots, prefixes, suffixes, phonemes, and vowel pivots, reveals the connective tissue that links one meaning to another. The personal power this study yields is intelligence: the ability to see through the negative spaces between words to the patterns that join them.” — Bryant McGill, Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream (Jun 2016) https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-bryant-mcgill-meaning-of-meaning-personal-power ```