Re: Kanzi's doll

vera p john-steiner (vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu)
Mon, 18 Aug 1997 10:08:45 -0600 (MDT)

Mike,
In light of your challenging task ahead (where is Loughborough? and what
kind of an audience are you expecting?) I read Chapter 5 carefully. Last
time I read it, I did it too fast on the plane to SRCD. The chapter
is-understandably- packed with so much material that it must be hard to
choose the best themes for an oral presentation. To me the fact that you
do
not rely systematicalyy on the functional/cognitive people in the L.A.
literature is a little troubling. Tomasello certainly belongs to that
general orientation, as does Nelsom, and the Chicago group of researchers
working on" home-signs". The issue of modularity, raises for me,a lot
of unresolved issues. I prefer the alternative notion of a general
human preparedness for language. Then you don't have to worry about
seperate modules for syntax and phonology. I like the examples of
ecologically varied care-taking arrangements and they should bolster your
argument as presented in the chapter with prolepsis as such a useful and
exciting concept. I think Resnick's notion of" prepared structure" is
closest to my position. Anyhow these are issues that are stimulated by
your discussion of ontogeny, and may or may not be relevant to what you
are preparing. It helps me to re-enter a discussion of CP that I have
largely missed as I am under so many deadlines,

Vera

On Sun, 17 Aug 1997, Mike Cole wrote:

> Hi Vera and Eva--
>
> I put in the dirty-eared doll example because it had just been relayed to
> me and I thought it was cute. Excuse my grandfatherly mis-direction.
>
> Today I am suffering through writing a talk on culture and development to
> give in Loughborough. 50 min=25 double spaced pages. Argh. I have made
> several false starts. One interesting problem to come out of my fight with
> these words is that I am focussing on ontogeny and I figured I could simply
> "cut down" chapter 7 of CP. Wrong. I find that over and over again what
> is said about ontogeny can't be made coherent without the properties of
> culture developed in Chap5 and 'interweaving" discussion in Chapter 6. Of
> course, I knew that "ahead of time" theoretically, but in trying to solve
> the problem, I felt a kind of micro-genetic twinge, as if my theoretical
> knowledge had just risen to the concrete.
>
> Now, if only I can find a way to melt that concrete down to 25 pages, all
> will be well.
>
> I sure wish I could be seeing tall ships sailing silently through the water.
> Here in San Diego the Naval Airstation's hotshot pilots are doing an airshow
> that makes it sound like the Somme in late 1915 and my border collie keeps
> wanting to sit in my lap out of fear.... which doesn't help the writing
> at all!
> mike
>

---------------------------------
Vera P. John-Steiner
Department of Linguistics
Humanities Bldg. 526
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
Internet: vygotsky who-is-at triton.unm.edu
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