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.
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