- This is visible in the unstoppable change in language:
-SLANG
-JARGON
-HISTORICAL CHANGE
-DIALECT DIVERGENCE
-LANGUAGE FORMATION
- Cognitive machinery with which humans conceptualize the world and the relationship types that govern human interactions.
-How we conceptualize reality?
>TECHNICAL PROBLEM IN LANGUAGE<
* Which verbs go in which constructions?
-Verbs are the chassis of the sentence it's the framework onto which the other parts are bolted.
* > DEPENDS ON WHETHER THE VERB
SPECIFIES A KIND OF MOTION OR A
KIND OF POSSESSION CHANGE. <
To give something involves both causing
something to go and causing someone to have.
- GIVE THE BOOK.
>DATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS<
- GIVE A MUFFIN TO A MOUSE ( PREPOSITIONAL)
-GIVE A MOUSE A MUFFIN ( DOUBLE-OBJECT )
>IDIOSYNCRATIC EXCEPTIONS<
-BIFF DROVE THE CAR TO CHICAGO ✔
-BIFF DROVE CHICAGO THE CAR X
SOLUTION:
These constructions despite initial appearance are
not synonyms we can notice in human cognition
there is a subtle difference in meaning between them.
CONCLUSIONS:
1st. There is a level of fine-grained conceptual structure,
which we automatically and unconscious compute everytime we produce or utter a sentence, that governs our use of language.
THE LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT OR MENTALESE.
It seems to be based on a fixed set of concepts which govern dozens of constructions and thousands of verbs not only in English but in all other languages.
BASIC FRAMEWORK FOR THOUGHT
> Fundamental concepts such as space, time, causation, and human intention.
Such as what is the means and what is the ends?
IMMANUEL KANT.
>Our unconscious use of language seems to reflect these Kantian categories:
It doesn't care about perceptual qualities, such as color, texture, weight and speed which virtually never differentiate the use of verbs in different constructions.
ADDITIONAL TWIST:
All of the constructions in English
- Are used not only literally
- But in a quasi-metaphorical way
TRANSFER OF THINGS OR TRANSFER OF IDEAS.
- She told a story to me
- Told me a story
>The container metaphor of communication<
-Use space as metaphor.
-ideas as objects
-sentences as containers
-communication as set of sending
CONCLUSIONS:
2nd. The ability to conceive a given event in two different ways.
FUNDAMENTAL FEATURE OF HUMAN THOUGHT
It is the basis for much human argumentation in which people don't differ so much on the facts as on how they ought to be constructed.
> HUMAN INTELLIGENCE CONSISTS OF<
- A repertoire of concepts (objects, space, time, causation, intention) useful in a social knowledge - intensive species.
- A process of metaphorical abstraction:
Conceptual structure bleached of its content applied to new abstract domains.
> RELATIONSHIP TYPES THAT GOVERN HUMAN SOCIAL INTERACTION <
- The puzzle of indirect speech acts
>The key is that language is a way of negotiating relationships.
TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS:
-COMMUNALITY
-THE KIND OF MINDSET THAT OPERATES WITHIN A FAMILY
-DOMINANCE
-RECIPROCITY
-SEXUALITY
*THESE CAN BE NEGOTIATED, THEY CAN BEN STRETCHED AND EXTENDED.
*MISMATCHES WHEN A PERSON ASSUMES ONE RELATIONSHIP TYPE AND ANOTHER ASSUMES A DIFFERENT ONE.
LANGUAGE AS A SOCIAL INTERACTION HAS TO SATISFY TWO CONDITIONS:
-You have to convey the actual content but you also have to negotiate and maintain the kind of relationship you have with the other person.
Solution:
We use language ay two levels:
-The literal form signals the safest relationship with the listener.
-Expressing it as an if-then statement.