>>>>> "John" == John Turnbull <john at turnbull.org> writes:
>> Why did physicists had to coin the new word "quark" for that
>> very concept? Why did physicits have to coin the new term
>> "chromatic charge" for those new concepts in quantum mechanics?
John> New words are created to reduce the number of words needed
John> to communicate. If physicists said "itty-bitty particles
John> that compose the little things that make up atoms" then they
John> would probably think differently. Creating a new word
John> allows them to treat "quark" as an independent concept, and
John> think further about it.
But by your great theory, physicist shouldn't be able to think about
quarks before a word for it exists. So, how could they come up with
the concept of "quark"?
>> Explain to me how mathematicians think and develop the concepts
>> before the words "complex number", "differentiation", "vector",
>> "integration", "tensor", "curl", "quarternion", etc. are
>> coined.
John> Not being a mathematician I'm not familiar with half of
John> those terms, but surely the same thing applies. Something
John> is described with a lot of words, and then a new word or
John> term is used to describe it, which allows thinking about it
John> without worrying about the details.
Very often, the experts can have a new concept for some time before
they have a word for it. I don't think this MUST think about such
things with "a lot of words". An idea is an idea. I doesn't have to
be associated with words.
John> Don't you also communicate with diagrams? There must be
John> some common language to the diagrams so people understand.
No.
John> Languages are composed of words. An arrow in a flowchart is
John> a word.
No. It's a visual symbol, not a word. That you call it "arrow" is
irrelevant. People reading the chart do not have to say "arrow" when
he reads it. Similarly, many Chinese students are unfamiliar with the
various Greek letters used in maths. They don't have to know how to
pronounce these "words" before they can manipulate formulae containing
Greek letters. A written symbol is a visual concept (it's shape).
Even if you can't pronounce that symbol, you can still recognize it
and work with it.
When I read a Chinese novel, I may encounter rare ideograms which I
don't know how to pronounce at all. I don't have to look up a
dictionary. By contiuing reading, I can get its meaning (but not
pronunciation) from context. Thereafter, when I encounter the same
ideogram in the novel, I know what it means without having any idea of
how to pronounce it. Now, tell me how come that's possible, if your
theory of "microscopic lip movement" holds.
>> BTW, how do you think deaf people think?
John> Deaf people usually know languages. They read, write, know
John> sign language. Why would it be a problem? Words don't have
John> to be heard.
What about those deaf people who can't speak at all? Do their lips
move microscopically when they think?
--
Lee Sau Dan $(0,X)wAV(B(Big5) ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ)
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