Likeness-making and the evolution of cognition

Paleontological evidence suggests that human artefacts with intentional markings might have originated already in the Lower Paleolithic, up to 500.000 years ago and well before the advent of ‘behavioural modernity’. These markings apparently did not serve instrumental, tool-like functions, nor do they appear to be forms of figurative art. Instead, they display abstract geometric patterns that potentially testify to an emerging ability of symbol use. In a variation on Ian Hacking’s speculative account of the possible role of “likeness-making” in the evolution of human cognition and language, this essay explores the central role that the embodied processes of making and the collective practices of using such artefacts might have played in early human cognitive evolution. Two paradigmatic findings of Lower Paleolithic artefacts are discussed as tentative evidence of likenesses acting as material scaffolds in the emergence of symbolic reference-making. They might provide the link between basic abilities of mimesis and imitation and the development of modern language and thought.

A critical examination of Piaget's theory of child mentality

This thesis represents an attempt to exmine critically the theory of child mentality put forward by Professor Jean Piaget of Geneva. By experiment and observation Piaget has collected much valuable data from the children attending the Maison des Petits de l'Institute Rousseau: his results together with a somewhat novel theory to explain them are contained in his four volumed "The Language and Thought of the Child," "Judgegment and Reasoning in the Child," "The Child's Conception of the world " and "The Child's conceptoin of Causuality."

A critical examination of Piaget's theory of child mentality

This thesis represents an attempt to exmine critically the theory of child mentality put forward by Professor Jean Piaget of Geneva. By experiment and observation Piaget has collected much valuable data from the children attending the Maison des Petits de l'Institute Rousseau: his results together with a somewhat novel theory to explain them are contained in his four volumed "The Language and Thought of the Child," "Judgegment and Reasoning in the Child," "The Child's Conception of the world " and "The Child's conceptoin of Causuality."

CYBERSPACE AS A SPACE: ANALYSIS OF METAPHORICAL STATEMENTS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Over the last thirty years, technology has created a new space (cyberspace) where people meet each other, seek information, or simply try to navigate through. However, there is no consensus in research on the character of cyberspaces and the extent to which they are real. In the first systematic empirical research of this nature, the study found an answer to this question through a survey of metaphorical accounts of university students in Information Studies, and Librarianship (N=102) collected over three years (2019-2021). Cyberspace is a real space in students' experiences, language, and thought structures. A space that allows movement, orientation, and search to be related with one another. An environment in which cognition, learning, and knowledge are structuring activities. Learning and cognition in this space occur differently than in the physical environment, which poses a challenge for developing specific didactic practices and social programs for students. Students perceive cyberspace as linked to the need to acquire new epistemic tools to help them overcome the crisis of knowledge they experience through this space. Keywords: cyberspace, didactic practices, information literacy, metaphors, pragmatism, tacit knowledge, on life

Narrating the Meaning of Existence: An Analysis of the Autobiographical Narratives of Three Translingual Writers

This paper focuses on the autobiographical narratives of three translingual writers, Nabokov, Brodsky and Makine. Their narratives are analyzed by taking into account Vygotsky’s ideas on the relationship between language and thought (1987), Bruner’s ideas on storytelling (1986, 2002) and Swain’s concept of languaging as a meaning-making process through language (Swain, 2006). The paper investigates the question of the role of language in making sense of writers’ lives as displaced people. In order to answer this question, we analyzed the autobiographical narratives for languaging episodes that are defined as autobiographical excerpts where the writers attempt to make sense of their lives as displaced people. The following major themes have been identified as the result of the analysis: construction of the lost world out of new experiences, discovery of the meaning of existence, reconciliation through cultural and linguistic hybridity. We believe that the implication of the study is that it can resonate with the lives of other displaced people at the time of cultural and linguistic superdiversity.

Aspects of the Language and Thought of Four-Year-Old Maori Children: a Study Based on Bierwisch's Componential Analysis of a Set of Adjectives

<p>Using an analysis developed by the linguist Manfred Bierwisch of the semantic components of the set of spatial adjectives, big, little, long, short, high, low, wide, narrow, deep, shallow, far, near, thick, thin, fat, thin, tall and short, four series of tests were constructed in order to determine whether differences existed in the meaning systems of Maori and of Pakeha four-year-old children with respect to these words, and whether Maori and Pakeha performances were similar across all four series. The series were: (a) A word recognition series testing for components of meaning in which pairs of components were placed in binary opposition. (b) An implication series testing for understanding of the concepts referred to by the words of the set. (c) An anomaly series, designed to elicit words of the set and to explore the children's understanding of the use of words. (d) A feature series which explored the children's implicit understanding of normativity and proportion. In addition the children were asked to do a drawing of something big and something little. Their mothers were also interviewed in order to collect information about a number of background variables such as mother's education, father's occupation and the language background of the child. Maori and Pakeha samples were established by asking the mothers to give the ethnic identity of the child. The main findings were that the Pakeha performed better than the Maori sample on recognition of the set of target words but this difference did not reach a level of statistical significance. Two words of the set, low and wide were recognised significantly more often by Pakeha than by Maori. With regard to the range of the words of the set elicited the Pakeha children produced a greater variety of words but, again, this difference was not statistically significant. The two samples performed about equally with regard to comprehension of the concepts signified by the words of the set. Nor was any important difference detected in the feature series or the drawings. An analysis of choice patterns showed no significant difference between the two samples. These results were interpreted to mean that the four-year-old Maori children in the sample did not exhibit cognitive deficit relative to the Pakehas even though they showed differences in word recognition and word use. Nor were they hampered in their access to the meaning of the words in the study by acquaintance with the Maori language. In order to assess the possible effects of various background factors, measures of word recognition, concepts, and strategies (choice patterns) were correlated with the background variables. The age of the child was significantly associated with the concept scores and with number of words elicited. Father's occupation was associated significantly with words recognised in the Pakeha sample but not in the Maori sample. In addition to exploring possible Maori-Pakeha differences in interpretation of words and concepts, the semantic feature acquisition hypothesis was examined and found to be inadequate as an explanation of the acquisition of words and meaning. An alternative multi-level model based on a hierarchy of preferred interpretations was developed to suggest the way in which the words of the set and their meanings are acquired by the young child.</p>

Aspects of the Language and Thought of Four-Year-Old Maori Children: a Study Based on Bierwisch's Componential Analysis of a Set of Adjectives

<p>Using an analysis developed by the linguist Manfred Bierwisch of the semantic components of the set of spatial adjectives, big, little, long, short, high, low, wide, narrow, deep, shallow, far, near, thick, thin, fat, thin, tall and short, four series of tests were constructed in order to determine whether differences existed in the meaning systems of Maori and of Pakeha four-year-old children with respect to these words, and whether Maori and Pakeha performances were similar across all four series. The series were: (a) A word recognition series testing for components of meaning in which pairs of components were placed in binary opposition. (b) An implication series testing for understanding of the concepts referred to by the words of the set. (c) An anomaly series, designed to elicit words of the set and to explore the children's understanding of the use of words. (d) A feature series which explored the children's implicit understanding of normativity and proportion. In addition the children were asked to do a drawing of something big and something little. Their mothers were also interviewed in order to collect information about a number of background variables such as mother's education, father's occupation and the language background of the child. Maori and Pakeha samples were established by asking the mothers to give the ethnic identity of the child. The main findings were that the Pakeha performed better than the Maori sample on recognition of the set of target words but this difference did not reach a level of statistical significance. Two words of the set, low and wide were recognised significantly more often by Pakeha than by Maori. With regard to the range of the words of the set elicited the Pakeha children produced a greater variety of words but, again, this difference was not statistically significant. The two samples performed about equally with regard to comprehension of the concepts signified by the words of the set. Nor was any important difference detected in the feature series or the drawings. An analysis of choice patterns showed no significant difference between the two samples. These results were interpreted to mean that the four-year-old Maori children in the sample did not exhibit cognitive deficit relative to the Pakehas even though they showed differences in word recognition and word use. Nor were they hampered in their access to the meaning of the words in the study by acquaintance with the Maori language. In order to assess the possible effects of various background factors, measures of word recognition, concepts, and strategies (choice patterns) were correlated with the background variables. The age of the child was significantly associated with the concept scores and with number of words elicited. Father's occupation was associated significantly with words recognised in the Pakeha sample but not in the Maori sample. In addition to exploring possible Maori-Pakeha differences in interpretation of words and concepts, the semantic feature acquisition hypothesis was examined and found to be inadequate as an explanation of the acquisition of words and meaning. An alternative multi-level model based on a hierarchy of preferred interpretations was developed to suggest the way in which the words of the set and their meanings are acquired by the young child.</p>

CAN FIGURES PERSUADE? ZEUGMA AS A FIGURE OF PERSUASION IN LATIN

Use of rhetorical figures has been an element of persuasive speech at least since Gorgias of Leontini, for whom such deliberate deviations from ordinary literal language were a defining feature of what he called the ‘psychagogic art’. But must we consider figures of speech limited to an ornamental and merely stylistic function, as some ancient and still many modern theorists suggest? Not according to contemporary cognitive rhetoric, which proposes that figures of speech can play a fundamentally argumentative role in speech by evoking a level of shared meaning between speaker and listener, and simultaneously by affording the possibility of reorganizing this common ground. This paper argues that, in Latin literature, zeugma—the ‘linking together’ of two elements (usually nouns or prepositional phrases) with a third (usually a verb) that is semantically compatible with only one of them—can and very often does operate argumentatively, and that it does so by surfacing figurative relationships that normally remain below the conscious awareness of Latin speakers and by imparting a certain structure to these relationships. What very often motivates the selection of elements within zeugma—and what makes zeugma more than simply a stylistic device—are in fact metaphorical structures that are highly conventionalized in Latin's semantic system. In tapping into symbolic associations that are deeply entrenched in the language and thought of Latin speakers, zeugma therefore provided a ready-made device for constructing arguments in context.

Dialectical Units of Language and Thought

The role of the mother tongue in the spiritual development of man, in the cultural and enlightenment development of society is extremely important. Language is the most objective and indestructible mirror of national spirituality, enlightenment and culture. It is said in a hadith: “The beauty of a man is in his tongue”. This article discusses the integral aspects of language, word formation, language and thinking.

THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC IN THE BUDDHIST PERIOD

English - Indian art and culture, in any case are a joint creation of the dravadian and Aryan genius a welding together of symbolic and representative, abstract explicit language and thought. Already at Bharhut and Sanchi, 'The Aryan symbal is yielding to its environment and passing into decoration kushan art with the fact of imagery and its roots in bhakti is essentially Darvidian'. Already, however, the Indian shanti Figure at Bodhgaya shows Aryan affecting Dravidian models of expression, anticipating the essential of all latar 'Sativik Images'. Hindi - बुद्ध काल में मठों में संकीर्तन की तरह संगीत का प्रचलन प्रारम्भ हुआ। भगवान बुद्ध स्वयं एक उत्तम संगीतज्ञ थे। महात्मा बुद्ध ने ईश्वर प्राप्ति और मोक्ष अथवा निर्वाण हेतु बौद्ध धर्म के सरल तथा सुगम मार्ग का प्रवर्तन किया। उन्होंने प्राचीन मंत्रो, आध्यात्मिक गीतों तथा नृत्य आदि को नीरांजन (आरती) के लिए उपयुक्त मानते हुए संस्कृतनिष्ठ प्रार्थनाओं के स्थान पर देशी भाषाओं में रचित प्रार्थनाओं के प्रयोग पर बल दिया। उन्होने कृष्ण की प्रतिमाओं के प्रति विशेष श्रद्धा प्रकट की। बौद्ध युग की कला एवं संस्कृति तथा कलाकृतियों में आर्य तथा द्रविड़ जातियों से ग्रहण की गई आध्यात्मिक परम्पराओं तथा इष्ट देवों की पूजा-विधियों के ही पुनर्दर्शन होते हैं। इस संदर्भ में डाॅ. स्वरूप कुमार स्वामी का यह कथन दृष्टव्य है।