[Xmca-l] Two paths of mediation, or perhaps three

[mike cole]

the following observations might be of interest. I wonder if others have
had similar experiences. The dynamics of language and the paths of
mediation seem to be clear to me, but maybe that is just an illusory
artifact of reporting on introspective reports.

what, as Dr. Matusov is fond of asking, do you think?
mike
--------------------------------------------
 Two paths of mediated thought through three languages.



The topic arose because we were eating an almost great chiappino. I said,
"Lets make that a part of the repetoir and my mind drifted to a search for
other soups I love, but have not experienced in a long time. "Shi," I
suggested. Shi is a soup made from saurkraut. "I don't like shi" Sheila
replied. "I was think we should find a Russian restaurant that has good
shi," I responded. That way, you could have something you do like." Then I
thought about the properties of good shi and I code switched into Russian.
"Kisli kapusta, I said, with a heavy emphasis on the word, kisli, to
emphasize that is *sour * kapusta in contrast with the usual cabbage soup,
or the kind of cabbage you have in borscht. Then I thought to myself,
kisli-sour ..... oh, the *kraut *part of shi means cabbage!



I remarked to Sheila that it was remarkable that I had somehow never
connected the word kraut, as in sour kraut, with the word cabbage, even
though it you asked me what sour kraut was made of, I would of course say
cabbage. Why did I have to discover that kraut means cabbage from
remembering the delicious smell of schi?



My strong hunch is that, because I experienced WWII as a preschooler who
became obsessed with the war. All during my boyood I read fictional and
historical accounts of the war. In later years that war was depicted over
and over again in films from the Guns of Navarone to Private Ryan's war in
a manner that fit with my childhood image of WW II German soldiers, the SS,
the Wermacht -- "krauts." To me, the image of the word kraut, seems to have
retained this primitive, early, persistent, organizing image.



Because the word, kraut, was already occupied, when I thought of shi, I
was, it seems, thinking kisli/sour kapusta, without incorporating the
knowledge that

kapusta =kraut--> kraut=cabbabe.



Odd how mediation works.

And odd too, that my name is Cole.  If you look in the dictionary for the
definition of the word, cole, you will find something like this:



"any plant belonging to the genus Brassica, of the mustard family,including many

economically important vegetables, such as *cabbage.*.......


​darn!​



-- 

It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
object that creates history. Ernst Boesch