Criticizing Linguistics/Shared Cognitions (2)

[A. Katz]

Steve Long wrote:


>The machine is the culmination of thousands and thousands of "cognitions" on
>the part of thousands and thousands of individuals over along, long
>period of time.  What linked them all together communally is, I believe,
>language.

In the case of a computer that passes messages between people, just as in
the case of a book whose author is long dead, the issue is not
that no cognition was involved in creating the message. The point is that
the cognition that created the message is no longer operating at the time
of delivery. Hence the conclusion that language, however it may have come
into being, is separable from the cognition that spawned it.

It doesn't require high technology or even a writing system to make this
point. A parrot could be trained to deliver a message from one person to
another. The parrot need not understand the message. The sender can die
before the message is delivered. The receiver can still learn important
information -- and that is the power of language.

If cognition and language were one and the same, none of these scenarios
would work.


    --Aya Katz


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Dr. Aya Katz, Inverted-A, Inc, P.O. Box 267, Licking, MO
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