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

[Andy Blunden]

You've got a good head on your shoulders, Mike!
andy
------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
On 24/11/2015 3:25 PM, mike cole wrote:
> Oops, i should have proof read before rushing off. here is a slightly
> cleaner text. Same ideas. :-)
> 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 repertoire 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 the answer lies with the fact that I experienced
> WWII as a preschooler who became obsessed with the war. All during my
> boyood I read countless fictional and historical accounts of the war. The,
> and in later years that war was depicted over and over again in films from
> the Guns of Navaronne 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=cabbage.
>
>
>
> 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.*.......
>
> On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 8:16 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>