On Jun 27, 2009, at 2:57 PM, [email protected] wrote:
What I want us to do is ask: Why? They both hear the same word, but different notion ensues. How come?
Why do they both hear the same ... *sounds* (not, surely, "words," which are in your head, right? <g>)... but a different notion ensues?
The answer to your question probably lies in the science of language acquisition and cognition, and why human language is so different from animal vocalizations. Most animals voice fixed sounds that do, as I understand it, "mean" the same thing to other animals of their kind. Human language is not, because we can arbitrarily assign sounds, and the derivative visual forms of those sounds, to notions, to "meanings." Because the connection between the stimulus sound and the subsequent notion is entirely arbitrary (excluding, for this discussions, obvious ejaculations like "ouch" caused by pain), the sounds can be disconnected from its evoked "meaning," and likewise, a mental notion can be evoked--perhaps more easily--by different sounds, so that the connection between the original sound and the expected notion seems to diminish or not be as vivid or immediate.
Similarly, and making the same point, when one says the sounds /pan/, some listeners call to mind a metal cooking container, but others think of a loaf of bread.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michael Brady [email protected] http://considerthepreposition.blogspot.com/
