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These files are maintained strictly for historical reference, research, and recordkeeping purposes,
and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving.
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Hello Joseph, I'm trying to follow what you are saying. How do deaf individuals fit into the ideas you're presenting? Ivan On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Joseph Gilbert <joeg4us@roadrunner.com>wrote: > Andy, Thanks for replying. > > It is my understanding that the doctrine among linguists is that since > different words are used to refer to the same things in different languages, > there must be no absolute, universal relationship between the sounds of > words and their "meaning", that meaning being the things to which they > refer. Therefore, linguists generally hold that the relationship between > sound and meaning is "arbitrary". If we look at relationship between sound > and internal emotive state, a new panorama opens up and we see that there is > a direct and deep relationship between sound a meaning, that meaning being > the emotive states that vocal sounds emanate from and create. That we are > affected by the sounds we vocally produce provides us with the raw material > for a system of assigning meaning to things simply by naming them. We have > nothing other than the affects on us of our words with which to collectively > ascertain the affects on us of the things that make up our world. We feel > the affects of our vocal sounds internally, intuitively, intimately and with > consistency, and all of us who speak the same language share the same basic > perception of how we are affected by the things of our world. We process > this basic consensus world view through the lens of our own unique self > images. > One can sense the affect of any vocal sound on one by vocalizing > that sound repeatedly while sensing what emotive state/feeling state that > sounds stimulates/suggests. Try the sound of the letter, "R", > "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr". Or the sound of the letter, "M", "mmmmmmmmmmmm". Do > these sounds conjure up/ suggest any particular state of being? Try the "A" > sound and the the "D" sound. I went through the alphabet, from a to z when I > first discovered this phenomena and is appeared to me that the sequence of > sounds represented by our phonetic alphabet tells a story. I'd like to know > if you discern a story in that sequence. If so, a story of what? > It may be helpful to note that before the progenitors of we humans > used vocal sounds as words to refer to things outside of ourselves, we used > them to convey emotional states to one another as other social and somewhat > social species do. > > Joseph Gilbert > > > > On Aug 2, 2009, at 7:59 PM, Andy Blunden wrote: > > Joseph, welcome to xmca. >> >> I am no linguist Joseph, but I gathered from reading Saussure that >> linguists in his day (100 years ago) did "look for relationships between >> sounds and things" because he argued against that idea. But surely, no >> linguist has looked at it that way in recent times. Who do you have in mind? >> And surely the idea of sounds relating to emotive states is more relevant to >> the animal kingdom than culture. Or am I misunderstanding you? >> >> Andy >> >> Joseph Gilbert wrote: >> >>> Is our intellectual activity driven by a quest for answers to specific >>> questions, or is it more like a game or sport we engage in for the sake of >>> participating in society? What questions do we ask? I wanted to know why >>> people behave destructively, as they do. I allowed that question to exist >>> for many years until the answer became clear. It related to culture. >>> When we use words, we are making a statement about whatever things we >>> name. By referring to things vocally, we are, virtually, informing ourselves >>> of the affect/meaning of those things. The sounds we utter correlate to >>> emotive states, which we experience subliminally. Consequently, we associate >>> those emotive-feeling states with the things to which the sounds refer. >>> Linguists have been looking for relationships between the sounds of >>> words and the things to which they refer, and have been, for the most part, >>> frustrated by that search. Vocal sounds relate primarily to emotive-feeling >>> states, and only secondarily to the things to which our words refer. Are we >>> able to discover to what emotive states each of our vocal sounds refer? >>> If we would change our human behavior, which is often misidentified as >>> "human nature", we must address the cultural values, the unquestioned >>> givens by which we perceive our world. These givens, these values, our >>> culture, is a result of our language. >>> I would like to share more of this with youall if you want to know >>> more. >>> _______________________________________________ >>> xmca mailing list >>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu >>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca >>> >> >> -- >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Andy Blunden (Erythrós Press and Media) http://www.erythrospress.com/ >> Orders: http://www.erythrospress.com/store/main.html#books >> >> _______________________________________________ >> xmca mailing list >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca >> > > _______________________________________________ > xmca mailing list > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca > _______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca