Re: genes and language (Homer, Richard Dawkins)

From: Franz Gnaedinger (frgn_at_bluemail.ch)
Date: 02/08/05 

Date: 8 Feb 2005 00:01:07 -0800

Peter T. Daniels: do I detect a note of bitterness in your
replies to me? I got that feeling in the spring of last year,
and it never really left me. Did you have a good idea when
you were a student? did your professor trample on it? would
you like to have been as bold and daring as I am? Well, if
so, that hypothetical idea of yours would still be there,
hidden somewhere in your mind. How about telling me? I could
help you develop it - I am getting asked by professors to
help them develop their ideas, little me who is working
outside academe - and I know how to handle them dinosaurs,
how to get by them. Actually, you are a dinosaur yourself,
but a cute one, so I am ready to help you develop that
eventual idea of yours. Never too late. Rupert Ruhstaller
did not dare publish his new grammar based on functors and
arguments and visualized by budding circles; I do it for
him now. I could also help one Peter T. Daniels develop an
old idea of his, dating from his years as a student.
-
Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

> What is the difference between language and communication?
> You shall know the answer by the end of this message.
>
> Here again my basic definition of language from 1974/75:
> Language is the means of getting help and understanding
> from those we depend upon in one way or another - and
> every means of getting such help may be called language.
>
> I told you about Nera, our funny, kind, and clever dog
> from India. She could express herself in many ways: bark,
> whine, moan, howl, seldomly growl, and sometimes kind of
> sing; play her white eyebrows in her black face; wag her
> tail and give other body signals. We replied to her using
> human language, and she obviously understood several words.
> And if not the actual words then surely the tone including
> undertones. In an 'Oh no, don't you see I am working?' she
> could hear a concealed message: 'I should work, but I can
> need a break, so let us fool around some.' She understood
> our body language, ven some of our mimic, I guess, and
> certainly other signals dogs can interpret, such as odors
> relesased in the sweat, and perhaps further signals we are
> conveying unconsciously.
>
> All those signals together may be called communication.
> If language resembles a car, a bicycle, a horse wagon,
> et cetera, communication resembles the traffic, the sum
> of all vehicles in motion, passing by on a street ...
>
> The world is brimming of communication. The cells in a
> body communicate by exchanging molecules and even small
> organelles, ions and photons; some trees warn each other
> of insects feeding on their leaves by emitting a gas;
> animals evolved many ways of communicating; even bacteria
> emit signals, calling other bacteria to join them e.g. on
> a drop of fat in a sink; and the greatest accomplishment
> of biological agents, namely the biosphere, is maintained
> via zillions of "voices" we don't hear - as we don't ever
> notice all the calls to cell phones radiating through the
> air, travelling accross the sky; we just receive the one
> call that has our name or number to it.
> -
> Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch
>
>
> > Language is the means of getting help and understanding
> > from those we depend upon (my definition from 1974/75),
> > and a basic need of social beeings is to belong: to be
> > accepted and estimated as valid members of the various
> > communitites we are a part of, we are partaking in.
> >
> > I told you of Nera, a dog from India; how she placed
> > her head on the table, played her white eyebrows in her
> > black face, begging for food from our meal - and ate a
> > whole heap of peanut shells, for sharing a meal with us
> > made her feel accepted as a true member of our tribe.
> >
> > I also told you of a little girl I used to take with me
> > to shopping; how I once made a joke by telling her that
> > I was already gone, and on my way to the village, while
> > standing right in front of her, and how the poor mite
> > began crying. The fear of being abandoned is so strong
> > that it can overflow the mind and blind the eyes (while
> > big promises can blind people in a metaphorical sense).
> >
> > The human brain easily recognizes anrgy voices, due to
> > the amygloid nucleus (a new discovery). We are always
> > fearing to be excluded in one way or another, so when
> > we hear an angry voice we wonder whether someone might
> > be angry at us? and if so, why? and can we possibly do
> > something about it? in order to be accepted again?
> >
> > There are frightening examples of people who have been
> > excluded from their tribe and died; a shaman or witch
> > doctor spoke his banning formula, and the banned person
> > died two days later, from no obvious reason other than
> > the spoken words (I read about such a case from Africa,
> > in a reliable book; alas, I can't remember its title).
> >
> > Not being spoken to is hard punishment, while words
> > console and heal. Even chatting is a pleasure; no need
> > to say much, the mere sounds - or words on a screen -
> > weave a band of mutual belonging. Which is why not only
> > the much abused forum sci.archaeology but also the well
> > kept forum sci.lang are mainly chatrooms ...

Relevant Pages

  • Re: genes and language (Homer, Richard Dawkins)
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  • Re: genes and language (Homer, Richard Dawkins)
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  • Re: genes and language (Homer, Richard Dawkins)
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