Forget Communication; Study Cognition

  Leonard Talmy is an interesting fellow who has spent the past several decades exploring the way languages express thoughts. Can we have thoughts that we cannot express verbally? Many poets spend their lives trying to express the inexpressible. We know too that there are many ideas which can be expressed mathematically, but not verbally. How about the reverse; are there things we can think in words but not in other ways? For instance, language allows us to think it terms of what grammarians call mood. Talmy calls this a topic's "reality status." That's something not included in mathematical expressions. English allows us to distinguish between, "As I am king, I will name an aircraft carrier after you," and, "If I were king, I would name an aircraft carrier after you." Equations, by contrast, are all in a neutral mood, meaning they may or may not assert something true about the world. Talmy has been identifying these cognitive traits for years and has recently published a paper titled "Relating Language to Other Cognitive Systems — an abridged account" that outlines the chief similarities and differences in the way various cognitive systems are organized. I say outlines because the paper provides a skeleton for readers to ponder. Apparently the outline summarizes a book-length report on his work, but here Talmy provides only the thinnest of sketches, and one extended example. Still, the outline is sharp enough to be quite provocative. For example, he has a three part o...
Source: Babel's Dawn - Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Source Type: blogs