|
![Primal Chat [GPEM]](../elements/primal_chat.gif){kind=small}
LanguageLanguage, regarded as a deposit of symbols (Ferdinand de Saussure)
Symbol, regarded as substance of thought (Charles Sanders Peirce)
Language is used to express certain content (ideas, facts, opinions), i.e. the way we perceive our inner and outer world and the way we reflect on it. According to some theories, such as the Sapir-Worf's theory, native language determines its speakers' way of thinking, products of the culture they belong to, as well as the way they perceive the world around them.
As a principal means of communication used by humans, language is primary spoken, but it also can be transferred to other media, such as writing, nonverbal communication or visual communication.
[table1: expresion of sudden pain]
Language is a system of signs, subject to evolutionary changes and is inherently symbolic. It follows that a decoder, when interpreting a certain symbol of an encoder's message can only evoke those meanings that belong to his frame of experience. A symbol is a social category. It does not have a meaning of its own but acquires one by social convention.
Major terms employed here are signifiant - form of an idea, and signifie - marked idea (Ferdinand de Saussure). They are mental entities independent of external reality and are primarily connected to a certain culture, since the connection between them is usually arbitrary. Still, a partial exception to this principle of arbitrary connection exists in Phonetically Expressive Words (PEW) namely - onomatopoeia [
]
- the word mimics sounds of environment, and interjections
[
]
- where the sound is a direct expression of primal human emotions and behaviour.It is on this exception that we base Dictionary of Primal Behaviour, a database of words that have similar meanings and sound alike in the most widely spoken languages, i.e. words that are part of common world knowledge and of linguistic knowledge.
Dictionary of Primal Behaviour [
],
gives a list of Phonetically Expressive Words in alphabetical order and
explains their meanings. Each word is communicated visually, has a symbol
and is followed by a corresponding sound and a facial expression.
|
