In article <7fg0xs6x52.fsf at faith.csis.hku.hk>,
Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} <sdlee at faith.csis.hku.hk> wrote:
>>>>>> "John" == John Turnbull <john at turnbull.org> writes:
> >> Mind you again that there are often concepts that cannot (yet)
> >> be expressed in words in any known languages.
> John> I don't think so, and it's obviously pointless to ask for an
> John> example, as by your definition you can't express it.
>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?
New words are created to reduce the number of words needed to communicate.
If physicists said "itty-bitty particles that compose the little things
that make up atoms" then they would probably think differently. Creating
a new word allows them to treat "quark" as an independent concept, and
think further about it.
>Explain to me how mathematicians think and develop the concepts before
>the words "complex number", "differentiation", "vector",
>"integration", "tensor", "curl", "quarternion", etc. are coined.
Not being a mathematician I'm not familiar with half of those terms, but
surely the same thing applies. Something is described with a lot of words,
and then a new word or term is used to describe it, which allows thinking
about it without worrying about the details.
> John> Do you really need to memorize the shape of a triangle? Or
> John> is it just a word in the language of geometry?
>No, it's not a word, but a CONCEPT. A concept in my mind does not
>require words to represent. A concept is a concept is a concept. It
>is independent of words of any lauguage. I only need words when I
>want to communicate with others (reading other's writing, writing my
>own essays, talking/discussing).
Don't you also communicate with diagrams? There must be some common
language to the diagrams so people understand. Languages are composed
of words. An arrow in a flowchart is a word.
>BTW, how do you think deaf people think?
Deaf people usually know languages. They read, write, know sign language.
Why would it be a problem? Words don't have to be heard.
