David,
Perhaps I should have been clearer. John Black asserted that interpretation of words is a dynamic mental process. I agree.
John also asserted that that process is “common”. I think rather that there is a set of such mental processes, that they all have some elements in common,
and they probably have some significant divergences in different speech communities. The expectation of an utterance is that it will be more or less correctly interpreted in the speech community that is the intended audience. The mental process of making
that interpretation may well be largely common to that community, but that doesn’t necessarily make it “common” to human kind. That was my point.
The mental process for interpreting Chinese may be different from the mental process for interpreting English, and part of the reason for such a difference
might well be a difference in worldview between the native Chinese and the Western European. That is what I meant by “culture” – a mindset acquired in parallel with learning the language itself.
What you suggest is that there are different speech communities within an organization, and their interpretations of a given utterance may be different to a
degree that significantly affects the intended communication. That might suggest that their interpretation processes are different, or just that the related data that their minds bring to that process is different. That is, the collection of minds may all
implement a common algorithm for interpreting the utterance, but the utterance is not the only data used by the algorithm, and the differences in data may result in differences in the result. Whether differences in interpretation are a consequence of differences
in algorithm or differences in data is a version of the question I intentionally left open.
-Ed
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of David Eddy
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 11:39 AM
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] "I don't believe in word senses." Sue Atkins
Ed -
On Oct 18, 2013, at 11:06 AM, Barkmeyer, Edward J wrote:
Since language is learned in the context of a culture, is the learned process conditioned by the culture?
Please to acknowledge that "culture" is also part of the work place... the folks working the loading dock are going to have different words & meanings from the folks in accounting.
So how many cultures—languages—are there in a place like the Pentagon? Blue, white, green, & purple suiters & we haven't even touched the various professional disciplines which all apply their own unique spin on "reality."
The chances of their being **** A **** correct meaning is pretty much close to zero.