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Nothingness
I woke up at night and my language was gone
No sign of language no writing no alphabet
nor symbol nor word in any tongue
and raw was my fear—like the terror perhaps
of a man flung from a treetop far above the ground
a shipwrecked person on a tide-engulfed sandbank
a pilot whose parachute would not open
or the fear of a stone in a bottomless pit
and the fright was unvoiced unlettered unuttered
and inarticulate O how inarticulate
and I was alone in the dark
a non-I in the all-pervading gloom
with no grasp no leaning point
everything stripped of everything
and the sound was speechless and voiceless
and I was naught and nothing
without even a gibbet to hang onto
without a single peg to hang onto
and I no longer knew who or what I was
and I was no more
~Aharon Amir, translated from the Hebrew by Abraham Birman
"You learned the concept 'pain' when you learned language." Ludwig Wittgenstein
Interesting speculative idea but all animals use some form of language. Anyone with a dog understands it after a while, and the dog understands a lot of words. Ears are an interesting evolutionary product. But consider the use of language as agitprop or the limits of language and that limit on what we know? That is the area in which the mind and the person exists.
Interesting speculative idea but all animals use some form of language.
Interesting speculative idea but all animals use some form of language.
No, all animals (and others) use some form of communication. Only humans use language.
Isn't all communication a form of language?
""Chasing Doctor Dolittle" is an easy read. Organized into nine chapters including "What is language?", "A New Theory of Language", "Let Me Love You", "Back off!", and "What's the Big Deal?" Slobodchikoff shows that we are not the only animals who use language. In addition to charming and highly verbal and linguistic prairie dogs, other animals including bees, squid, birds, bats, monkeys, whales possess languages of varying complexity. Prairie dogs, for example, have different alarm calls for the various predators who try to eat them, can describe the color of clothes, and can communicate about the body style (tall, thin, or short) of a human being. "
Dr. Dolittle To the Rescue: Animals Do Indeed Have Language | Psychology Today
Interesting speculative idea but all animals use some form of language.
No, all animals (and others) use some form of communication. Only humans use language.
Isn't all communication a form of language?
No, all animals (and others) use some form of communication. Only humans use language.
Isn't all communication a form of language?
No. A language can express any idea or emotion, describe any scene or object. None of the very many kinds of communication used by other animals remotely fulfills these criteria.
Isn't all communication a form of language?
No. A language can express any idea or emotion, describe any scene or object. None of the very many kinds of communication used by other animals remotely fulfills these criteria.
It seems to me the idea of language you describe makes you feel superior to other living beings. .
No one is trying to say other animals are equal to humans or the same as humans; that's not the point of the discussion.
So you are saying only a method of communication that has symbols, letters, an alphabet, is language. However, scientists tell us that body language accounts for most of human communication, and body language does not have an alphabet.
Nothingness
I woke up at night and my language was gone
No sign of language no writing no alphabet
nor symbol nor word in any tongue
and raw was my fearlike the terror perhaps
of a man flung from a treetop far above the ground
a shipwrecked person on a tide-engulfed sandbank
a pilot whose parachute would not open
or the fear of a stone in a bottomless pit
and the fright was unvoiced unlettered unuttered
and inarticulate O how inarticulate
and I was alone in the dark
a non-I in the all-pervading gloom
with no grasp no leaning point
everything stripped of everything
and the sound was speechless and voiceless
and I was naught and nothing
without even a gibbet to hang onto
without a single peg to hang onto
and I no longer knew who or what I was
and I was no more
~Aharon Amir, translated from the Hebrew by Abraham Birman
How might it be among our worst nightmares to wake up and find language gone?
How important is language to human beings?
The poem implies that we are dead the minute we lose language. In what way(s) is this true?
Having once acquired a language, is it ever possible for us really to stop talking? Once we
take on a language, can we ever really lose it?
If languages are systems of symbols, if one takes the symbol away, does not the thing itself remain?
The point is that we would no longer be human.
And no, you could not take it away.
Interesting speculative idea but all animals use some form of language.
No, all animals (and others) use some form of communication. Only humans use language.
The point is that we would no longer be human.
And no, you could not take it away.
So the deaf and mute aren't people?
Isn't all communication a form of language?
No. A language can express any idea or emotion, describe any scene or object. None of the very many kinds of communication used by other animals remotely fulfills these criteria.
It seems to me the idea of language you describe makes you feel superior to other living beings.
No one is trying to say other animals are equal to humans or the same as humans; that's not the point of the discussion.
So you are saying only a method of communication that has symbols, letters, an alphabet, is language. However, scientists tell us that body language accounts for most of human communication, and body language does not have an alphabet.
