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Literary notes about conflate (AI summary)

In literary discourse, "conflate" is used to denote the merging of distinct texts, narratives, or ideas into a unified whole, often with significant interpretive or theoretical implications. Some writers use the term to describe how disparate textual traditions are combined to emphasize certain priorities, as seen when the importance of specific texts is established through their confluence [1]. Other authors highlight the awkward or problematic nature of such unions, whether in narrative construction that obscures key details [2] or in the misclassification of separate crimes into a single offense [3]. Critical approaches even examine the act of conflation itself, discussing its role in establishing hierarchical readings between cultural traditions [4] or in the construction of signs with blended meanings [5]. At times, the limitations of what can be meaningfully conflate are underscored [6], while elsewhere the dangers of merging distinct categories, such as intellectual and real property, are emphasized [7].
  1. “The priority of two at least of these three Texts just noticed to the Syrian Text,” they are confident has been established by the eight “ conflate
    — from The Revision Revised Three Articles Reprinted from the "Quarterly Review." I. The New Greek Text. II. The New English Version. III. Westcott and Hort's New Textual Theory. To Which is Added a Reply to Bishop Ellicott's Pamphlet in Defence of the Revisers and Their Greek Text of the New Testament: Including a Vindication of the Traditional Reading of 1 Timothy III. 16. by John William Burgon
  2. It has become awkwardly combined with VI into a conflate narrative, as is shown by the silence about the fox in LA.
    — from The Latin & Irish Lives of CiaranTranslations Of Christian Literature. Series V. Lives OfThe Celtic Saints
  3. For their part, police publicly conflate all hacking crimes with robbing payphones with crowbars.
    — from The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling
  4. We find (p. 93) Conflation, or Conflate Readings, introduced as proving the 'posteriority of Syrian to Western ... and other ... readings.'
    — from The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy GospelsBeing the Sequel to The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by John William Burgon
  5. [39] The name is expressed by the conflate sign, formed of the signs URU and A, the phonetic reading of which is unknown.
    — from A History of Sumer and Akkad An account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchy by L. W. (Leonard William) King
  6. It is impossible to “conflate” in places where Bא and their associates furnish no materials for the supposed conflation.
    — from The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by John William Burgon
  7. The tendency to conflate intellectual and real property is even more dangerous in a networked world.
    — from The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle

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