Return-Path: Date: Fri, 14 Jun 91 12:02:39 EDT From: "Arthur W. Protin Jr." (GC-ACCURATE) To: Bob LeChevalier Subject: Re: identity and general semantics Message-Id: <9106141202.aa13844@COR4.PICA.ARMY.MIL> Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Fri Jun 14 18:06:38 1991 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!pica.army.mil!protin Folks, I will try to be concise and polite. While I accept perfectly well that "you can not step in the same river once" (because it is changing while you step in it and is therefore not the same river), I feel that argument is incongruous with the notion of language. Language is learned as we match sufficiently similar utterances with the common properties of many distinct and varied situations. Thus any concept of equality within the domain of language must anyway include a measure of acceptable variability. As bizarre as it must seem, the collected evidence is that each person re-invents language when he/she/it learns his/her/its first language. It is unclear whether this personal development parallels the evolution of language within society and I am unsure if the development is the same for an adult learning language for the first time as it is for a child. The first stage of that development in chilren is to tie utterances to single concepts, mostly physical objects, like "mommy", "food", "up" (not an object, most likely an event). Then comes the simple juxtapositioning of words (recognized fragments of the total utterance) to convey the 'natural' joining of concepts, like "mommy up" (for "hey you, carry me"). At this stage word order is not recognized as important, the words "mommy", "me", "carry" are spoken in any order since the only 'sensible' meaning is for the mother to carry the child. Only when inappropriate word orders allow fluent listeners to enact the 'perverse' action, like "me feed mommy", do the learning children start to develop grammar. It is not obvious to me what internal methods are used to model grammar. I consider the distinction between names and other predicates to an advanced feature of language, just as I feel that the place structure of predicates is. However, I have to set down a Xerox of some memo, take a Kleenex to wipe the tear from my eye, and take an Aspirin with my Coke, because I realize that we only minimally value these linguisitc advances. :-) thank you, Arthur Protin Arthur Protin These are my personal views and do not reflect those of my boss or this installation.