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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 19 January 2009 - Volume 07<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: <span class="ep8xu"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Luc Hellinckx</span></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com">luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "Language programming"</span><br>
<br>
Beste Sandy, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">You wrote:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;"><span style="word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">I think this is probably the nearest thing I can think
of to a specific</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
language "programming the brain". But does anything similar happen
with</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
spoken languages?</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Two days
ago in the Dutch newspaper NRC an article about metaphors and embodied
cognition:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.nrc.nl/wetenschap/article2122846.ece/Symbolisch_woordgebruik_heeft_een_fysieke_basis" target="_blank">http://www.nrc.nl/wetenschap/article2122846.ece/Symbolisch_woordgebruik_heeft_een_fysieke_basis</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">In Dutch
unfortunately. Embodied cognition looks very promising to me. Basic concept
seems to be that nobody's ideas are abstractions that are operating completely
independent from the outside world. They only get shape because of the
interaction our body has with that outside world. Not in the least with one's
mother, to start with.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Again, I
wouldn't use the term "programming" as it's too deterministic.
"Formatting" sounds more appropriate to me (btw Dutch
"vorming" can also be translated as "teaching,
education"). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Wikipedia
gives some more information about applying "embodied cognition" in
linguistics (also sign language) and robotics:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_cognition" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_cognition</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">The active
use of (spoken) language also constantly rewires your brain I think (yes,
that's a metaphor *s*). If a person has to express and communicate his ideas,
quite often at some point he gets some new insight, which may not have been
created if he would have kept his ideas to himself. If so, this may prove that
language is not a neutral carrier of information, but rather plays an active
role in the management of that information.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Kind
greetings,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);">Luc
Hellinckx</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">PS: Steven
Pinker believes the brain is "programmed" to pick up spoken language
easily, but not "programmed" to learn how to read and write. A human
being, he believes, will generally not spontaneously learn to do so (~ his
book: The Blank Slate).<br style="">
</span></p>