Is language mostly solipsistic?
Is language mostly solipsistic?
Consider the words on the screen. There are two sources of information.
-
The words, how they're arranged and such.
-
The meaning that you assign to the words. Meaning drawn from a lifetime of memories.
99% of the information comes from the assigned meaning. So 99% of what's going on here is you talking to yourself.
You're viewing a single thread.
17 comments
-
Look at the semiotic theories stemming from Ferdinand de Saussure over a century ago: he would reverse the relative importance of your 1 and 2, arguing that words derive most of their meaning from their arrangement and interrelationships, and that most of the meaning we see in the world flows from the relationship between signs/words into our perception of their referents.
17 comments