@ Mike: remember that she wasn't blind/deaf from birth - read her autobiographical account (available on project gutenberg - which is an excellent corpus source btw - also available on DVD :) for how he finally hooked up the concept of "words" as tokens for real world concepts when linking the word water with her memory of water when she wasn't blind/deaf yet. it's a nice read for those who are interested in how 'grounding of concepts' happen (tho the nuggets are far and few inbetween). See below two extracts.
@Matt: yes as far as i remember typical human neurons typically have a few 1000 to 10000 synapses. But note that there are several other types of neurons - especially the ones linking different brain areas together as well as those relatively very rare (much less than 100000) 'emotional state/feeling' neurons that hook up/traverse many different areas of the brain. >>> "Mike Tintner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 04/29/07 2:04 AM >>> Helen Keller must have had a tough time existing without words. According to you she didn't know the shape of the chairs she sat on. She had no words. >From Kellers autobiography: "There was, however, one word the meaning of which I still remembered, WATER. I pronounced it "wa-wa." Even this became less and less intelligible until the time when Miss Sullivan began to teach me. I stopped using it only after I had learned to spell the word on my fingers." (and much later) We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away. ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=231415&user_secret=fabd7936
