singles thread

[Radar]

Those thoughts are constructed through words, compadre.

[worm]

Any linguist will tell you that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is absolute nonsense.

[worm]

What if anything do you hope to achieve by your outlook?

[sifi]

Any linguist will tell you that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is absolute nonsense.

[worm]

I wouldn't tell you that Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is absolute nonsense, but only because I don't know what it is. I can tell you what goes on my head when I'm speaking foreign mind. And how it's different when I speak one foreign to another foreign.

[Katster]

It's true. I've only had a very small taste of it so far, but when I speak Italian I feel Italian. Not that I would know what being Italian feels like.....but since most communication isn't words, your whole body language and persona changes when speaking a foreign language. It feels kind of cool.

[worm]

It's true. I've only had a very small taste of it so far, but when I speak Italian I feel Italian. Not that I would know what being Italian feels like.....but since most communication isn't words, your whole body language and persona changes when speaking a foreign language. It feels kind of cool.

[Iamthewalrus9]

I speak three languages. Does this qualify me as a linquist?

I wouldn't tell you that Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is absolute nonsense, but only because I don't know what it is. I can tell you what goes on my head when I'm speaking foreign mind. And how it's different when I speak one foreign to another foreign.

[sifi]

Do you perceive a different world Sifi? When speaking another language that is?

Edited September 10, 2008 by sifimaster

[worm]

It's essentially the idea that language determines thought, but the theory has frequently been debunked.

Edited September 10, 2008 by worm

[Iamthewalrus9]

It hasn't. It's been shown as unprovable. And the reason for that is that language is thought.

Edited September 10, 2008 by Iamthewalrus9

[Katster]

Kat - I think I sometimes use some of the jesticulations / body language of which you speak when using English.

[sifi]

Is that because those jesticulations are you though, or because you are getting a bit muddled with knowing 3 languages?

[Katster]

I learned to speak English and Italian at the same time. I reckon it's me alright.

For the record I don't cheat. Well, not anymore. I don't wear designer clothes either. Although I do wear clothes that fit me. And tend to match too.

[sifi]

I'd love to have learnt a couple of languages from birth

[worm]

So explain the existance of languageless adults. Schaller did a study of an immigrant who had no form of language in 1991, but he was an intelligent being and could work with numbers and so on. If language truly defined thought, how did this man think?

Also, why the hell am I turning into a Sifimaster/Worm style mundanity?

Edited September 10, 2008 by worm

[sifi]

Is language simply giving tags to things in order to allow communication and identification of them?

Would a rose, by any other name, smell as sweet?

Also, why the hell am I turning into a Sifimaster/Worm style mundanity?

Edited September 10, 2008 by sifimaster

[worm]

Is language simply giving tags to things in order to allow communication and identification of them?

Edited September 10, 2008 by worm

[Radar]

What about thinking in pictures or sounds? Imagination. These are non-linguistic forms of thought. They are still thought.

QED thought does not equal language, or vice versa, or whatever bunkum theory you're trying to sell today Mr Worm

[worm]

What about thinking in pictures or sounds? Imagination. These are non-linguistic forms of thought. They are still thought.

Edited September 10, 2008 by worm

[Radar]

You refer to the image? This is actually swiftly becoming our new language. But this too is an order. The only difference is, that the image does not refer to a structured order of meaning. It is therefore totally free and subjective. The language of post-structuralism.

Oh but it does. I assure you of that. It's pretty much where we're at these days. A standard.

[worm]

I refer to *any* image that an individual mind constructs - and I don't see the relevance of it being "ordered," except in that it does not compute for something to be both "ordered" and "free"

Edited September 10, 2008 by worm

[Radar]

Shouldn't we be talking about doinking?!

[worm]

As regards the other stuff, maybe it's just your manner of expressing concepts that makes it all seem new and (vaguely) interesting to me.

Edited September 10, 2008 by worm

[Goblinz]

Talking of language, did anybody see the recent documentary on Neanderthals and mapping their DNA.

Initial findings suggested that complex language is attached to a neanderthal genome and not modern human. Neanderthals had big clumsy weapons and needed to use complex language to communicate wheras modern humans had streamlined weapons that could be used at a distance and therefore the hunting parties were small and complex language was not required. The theory is that Neanderthals were not wiped out but were brought in to the gene pool through breeding with modern man.

Could prove to be incorrect but more will be found out when they finish mapping the DNA.

G