[lit-ideas] Psycholinguistic Baby Comes of Age
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:18:39 EDT
"Julie can learn to read code, but knowing code is not going to give her any
knowledge of anything outside of how to read code." (Geary)
Exactly. Then Andreas Ramos assumed that for Julie Krueger there is a wide
variety of lipstick that Ramos calls 'red'.
In _that_ case, Geary is right. Julie's distinctions between, say, 13 shades
of red, is part of the behavioural repertoire of Julie. Is knowledge of
something outside of how to tell red shades of lipstick. For why would she be
able to tell different shades of red unless they are VITAL for her survival
(as
a female)?
Remember that for White Speakers (English-Language Speakers), all snow is,
er, white. But hardly for the Eskimos who distinguish between (or among) 47
shades of 'snow-color'.
It would be easy to test if children think before they speak if it not were
for Mothers and their Motherese. Allow me to report an experiment recently
published in THE LANCET.
THE LANCET. Aug. 6 2005. M. J. Geary, PhD and his associates, J. L.
Speranza, PhD and Martina Stilton have recently undertaken a long-waited
experiments.
In the attic of the campus of the Memphis Metaphysical Ministry, they have
been 'educating' Miss Stilton's baby without the aid of language. The point is
explained by the Director of Research, Geary.
GEARY. We don't believe the word is essentially literate.
LANCET. What does has to do with not allowing the child the input of human
language?
GEARY. We provide him with all sorts of different input -- but not
artificial, arbitrary syntagms -- your common or garden 'English syntax'
STILTON. I hum him tunes, though (she giggles).
SPERANZA. And I, unintentionally, sometimes curse in Romanian in his
presence -- hardly an articulation, though.
LANCET. How old is the baby now.
GEARY. Well, you see. Your language is trapped in its own constellations of
presuppositions. He has come of age now. Growing a beard and all. And he's so
_peaceful_.
LANCET. How does he communicate with you?
STILTON. He doesn't, mostly -- but we take that as his will _not_ to be
*enforced* into preconceived world of opinions, and beliefs.
GEARY (interrupting her, or following her train of thoughts). Beliefs that
we later discard. This Baby is going to be DIFFERENT.
(c) LANCET
Cheers,
JL Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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