Dear John Homan
The French say what?? As a victim of the English education system that sees language as something that "others" have to learn in order to communicate with us ("fog in the Channel - Europe cut off"), I am linguistically challenged thus your point is lost on me.
I once shared a house with an Egyptian who worked for the UN. He was fluent in nine languages and could get by in four or five others. He was completely unable to say what language he thought in, and believed that thought transcended language, and that spoken language was a hopelessly inadequate form of communication; he used sign, gesture, faciual expression, mime and symbolism very effectively (and consciously) in everyday interaction.
>>> John Homan <[log in to unmask]> 03/27 1:04 am >>>
Dear Larry,
I am an engineer who also likes language as expression of mind and thought.
I am not prepared to limit my concept of language to what I write on paper,
or a transcript of what comes out of my mouth. The french say: "C'est le ton
qui fait la musique" Following through on that concept we would be remiss if
we did not include music, dance, the visual arts et al, as integral parts of
language.
have a good time, rgds John
----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Arnold <[log in to unmask]>
To: John Homan <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, 27 March, 2002 10:29 AM
Subject: RE: Whorfian revival? Effect of language on thought
> I see and understand every kind of snow that has come into my realm of
> perception without the need for any word snow. Snow is encapsulated in my
> mind as a visual tactile memory which can be recalled for each instance.
> Unfortunalely I cannot communicate that to you verbally or in any other
way
> that I know of.
>
> I think that is what makes me a visual artist as I attempt through
> photography and videos to communicate non linguistically albeit
semiotically
> which calls up the subjectivity of your own interpretations of the
> connotations of the symbolism employed.
>
> You need to read a little more about the varios changing concepts of
> linguistics from saussure, past Chomsky and on to the cognitive linguists
> who attempt to describe the neural mechanisms which call language into
> being.
>
> Admittedly to think about language itself you need to think linguistically
> as you do with most discours, however most discours uses language as an
> extention from the concrete to metaphor. both the words I have just used,
> concrete and metaphor are in them selves metaphorical usage fo r words
> derive ultimately from sensory, temporal and spatial experience and are
> utilised first to describe physical phenomena I believe
>
> Language and its use is of great interest to me since I am technically
> speaking semantically and pragmatically impaired.
>
> Larry
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of John Homan
> > Sent: 26 March 2002 21:24
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Whorfian revival? Effect of language on thought
> >
> >
> > As a Dutchman who learnt to speak, write and think in English, I am of
the
> > opinion that the mind leads language, not the other wat as
> > suggested in this
> > article. If the eskimos have seven expressions for snow than their
minds,
> > thought processes see snow as a multifaceted concept and hence catered
for
> > that in their language.
> >
> > people's richness of language and vocabulary is the external
demonstration
> > of a wealth of thought, concepts and imagery.
> >
> > In my case, coming from a family environment in the Netherlands
> > where books
> > and ideas were valued, my command of Dutch when I left Holland at 22 was
> > pretty reasonable. In a year or so my English developed to the
equivalent
> > level, to develop further from there, not through the Readers
> > Digest's 'how
> > to improve your word power', but because of a progressive
> > development of my
> > mind, my thinking, exploring concepts and ideas. The language was
> > there all
> > the time, but my vocabulary and understanding of my language
> > developed on a
> > 'as needed' basis.
> >
> > The mind leads language!
> >
> > have a grat Easter, rgds John
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Wednesday, 27 March, 2002 3:14 AM
> > Subject: Whorfian revival? Effect of language on thought
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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