Wow, I went into those old threads Juan posted and got lost in there. First I found something I wanted to quote, said by one of you guys 2 years ago(!) about human language and conceptual thought being locked in a spiral of mutual growth, each forcing the rapid development of the other. When I went back into the thread to see who exactly said that I found a whole new set of comments, which were hidden from me before.
And then I came upon an impertinent entry by dear Milum, when he was a 'stranger', calling all you old-timers 'exhalted grand pooh-bahs" or some such thing (my sentiments exactly when I first checked in). Then he took off on one of his wild and enjoyable rants. I liked it so much I have saved it in my word files.
When I looked at the date of that post, to see when he was so new to the board, it was September 10, 2001!
Oh, my. And as I went on I wondered what happened on the board that fateful next day, but as I continued, a few posts popped up for that day and even into the next. And while they were spare, they made not one mention of the disaster that shook our world. I am quite sure it came out in other places here. I assume that all of you would come here, to each other for reassurance and comfort, to express your shock and your anger, and perhaps profess your faith. But it just struck me that there was no mention of any of that whatsoever in that particular thread. The talk simply went on. Subdued, but it continued. And I guess that's ok as well.
But back to this thread.
So, *HUMAN language is what you are specifically talking about, I think. That does not then preclude the possibility of other forms of communication as language, be it cetacean, higher/lower primate or butterfly, from existing and functioning. I studied primatology, and deeply believe that the great apes (man included) are all capable of spiritual thought and self cognition, and I would venture at the least that the higher cetaceans are as well. Why not?
But the acquisition of (1)Human language bundled with (2)bipedalism, which allowed for (3)tool use (and *my have we gone off the deep end as a species with that one, up to and *including the use of a plane as a weapon of mini-destruction!)is the combination which leads us to *this place where we ask tsuwm for just the precise word to explain what we really mean to each other.
It's all good
mm
