Cogito ergo sum! I am thinking that's the only thing I can be sure about. But I can only assume that the world I'm sensing is real and that you are also probably sensing the same world. I can only imagine and "simulate" your experience when you use language to tell me something. Immanuel Kant resolved this issue by using concept of a priori knowledge. -We have instinctual knowledge of space and time.
I'll go one step further ... Let us assume a few things and then try a thought experiment.Let's turn the argument around and open Pandora's box
ASSUMPTIONS (or a priori knowledge)
Assumption 1: We must use Verbs to describe world. Things are the way they are or they change.(i.e stative verbs/action verbs)
Assumption 2 : When things change they either undergo transformation or someone acts on them.
- That change must happen in "Time", at a "Place" and in certain "Manner".
- An "Agent" acts and some "Object" is affected.
- These are the salient features of "Action"
- There might be a "Reason" for the action and an "Instrument" might be used.
Let's call these 'Salient Slots'.
(These are more or less various cases described in classical latin, sanskrit and greek.)
Assumption 3: The sentence must have a "verbal center" and can fill one or more of the slots with a phrase leaving other unspecified and must fix "Tense", "Aspect" and "Mood" (possibility/necessity)
HYPOTHESIS: All humans share this same a priori knowledge and it forms the schema or "instruction set" to analyze,understand,code decode and imagine information transmitted though use of language- in short to "derive meaning". Therefore all languages despite their superficial differences must be equally capable and must be expressing same underlying meaning.
PANDORA'S BOX WHEN WE DENY THE HYPOTHESIS.
1.There are some languages that are "smarter" than others.If yes I should better start using the smartest language. I already think Indo-aryan languages are the best and english and chinese are the dumbest.(I can give long list of why)
2. Better yet I can "design" a language that makes me and my fellow language speakers super smart. Better yet sell the product and become zillionaire. Wait, wait - I can also file a patent and stop you from being smart. "Method & apparatus to enhance cognitive capabilities through carefully arranged symbol mapping of spatio-temporal imagary extracted from verbal communication"
3. Langauge preservation is all non-sense. Those idiots should learn chinese/russian/english/foo/blah/ "sachinease
I am a fan of Steven Pinker's work all are must have books
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (P.S.)
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language
Some important Linguistic books
Study Guide for Contemporary Linguistics
Study Guide for Contemporary Linguistics
Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar
Other Grammar books
A Sanskrit grammar,: including both the classical language, and the older dialects, of Veda and Brahmana.
Essential background
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tense_aspect_mood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Grammar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-bar_theory
posted by Sachin Joshi
I'll go one step further ... Let us assume a few things and then try a thought experiment.Let's turn the argument around and open Pandora's box
ASSUMPTIONS (or a priori knowledge)
Assumption 1: We must use Verbs to describe world. Things are the way they are or they change.(i.e stative verbs/action verbs)
Assumption 2 : When things change they either undergo transformation or someone acts on them.
- That change must happen in "Time", at a "Place" and in certain "Manner".
- An "Agent" acts and some "Object" is affected.
- These are the salient features of "Action"
- There might be a "Reason" for the action and an "Instrument" might be used.
Let's call these 'Salient Slots'.
(These are more or less various cases described in classical latin, sanskrit and greek.)
Assumption 3: The sentence must have a "verbal center" and can fill one or more of the slots with a phrase leaving other unspecified and must fix "Tense", "Aspect" and "Mood" (possibility/necessity)
HYPOTHESIS: All humans share this same a priori knowledge and it forms the schema or "instruction set" to analyze,understand,code decode and imagine information transmitted though use of language- in short to "derive meaning". Therefore all languages despite their superficial differences must be equally capable and must be expressing same underlying meaning.
PANDORA'S BOX WHEN WE DENY THE HYPOTHESIS.
1.There are some languages that are "smarter" than others.If yes I should better start using the smartest language. I already think Indo-aryan languages are the best and english and chinese are the dumbest.(I can give long list of why)
2. Better yet I can "design" a language that makes me and my fellow language speakers super smart. Better yet sell the product and become zillionaire. Wait, wait - I can also file a patent and stop you from being smart. "Method & apparatus to enhance cognitive capabilities through carefully arranged symbol mapping of spatio-temporal imagary extracted from verbal communication"
3. Langauge preservation is all non-sense. Those idiots should learn chinese/russian/english/foo/blah/ "sachinease
Some of the useful links on the topic
From the Personal Library I am a fan of Steven Pinker's work all are must have books
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (P.S.)
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language
Some important Linguistic books
Study Guide for Contemporary LinguisticsStudy Guide for Contemporary Linguistics
Generalized Phrase Structure GrammarOther Grammar books
A Sanskrit grammar,: including both the classical language, and the older dialects, of Veda and Brahmana.
Essential background
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tense_aspect_mood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Grammar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-bar_theory
posted by Sachin Joshi
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