the midwives' assumption
that rewording a license alters its meaning and extends their
powers, and it is only a step from the notion of the correlation of
signifier and signified to Walter Shandy's more radical view that
names determine the character of the individual, that language can
magically control reality. Yet, despite Tristram's assertion that his
name may be partially responsible for his misfortunes, Walter's
theory is sufficiently idiosyncratic that it receives, at best, only partial…
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