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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
 > > In any case, I do not deny that language as a tool can impact thought > > proficiency, but as I said I believe that this case has been *vastly* > > overstated. It is by no means the high-order bit. > > Roman numerals. Arabic numerals. Mathematics. The fact that mathematics can be performed optionally using roman or Arabic numerals proves my point (a Sapir-Whorf style "proof" would strive to show that one system makes certain thoughts impossible). And my computer calculates faster and more accurately using strings of bit patterns; no Roman numerals or Arabic numerals at all. Maybe you are missing my point -- linguistic determinism says that thought is enabled and structured by language; I am arguing that the *opposite* is true in the vast majority of cases that matter. Language is simply a tool that humans create to assist us in our communications and cognition, and like any tool, words are subordinate to their master. When Michael Jackson says "bad", he means "good"; but when you say "bad" he is still smart enough to understand what you mean. When you learned math, you did not stop understanding how to engage in dialogue. Some people have specialized jargon, while others have to string together the limited concepts that they have to describe the same thing. And even small children will happily invent symbols for things which they have no satisfying extant symbol. The fact that we create computer languages (seemingly every year) geared at specialized processing tasks should put to rest linguistic determinism. One can be convinced that the human mind has certain "built-in" cognitive limits, but as of yet our languages are not even close to approaching those parameters. Our world of communicable symbols will *always* be a very poor substitute for what's in the head, IMO. 
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