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When do sounds become words?

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When do sounds become words?

Gadfly II
In the ointment

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jun 14, 2009
Location: San Diego, CA

Total Topics: 5
Total Posts: 210

Posted 06/14/09 - 07:06 PM:	#11
<p>Thanks Mway, I think I finally understand what Wittgenstein was getting at when he compared half a proposition to half a knight move. <br /> <br /> First, I think it would be a mistake to look at this as an example of the sorites paradox. How many letters / how many sounds of a complete word count as a whole word? Words only count as words when they are whole and are within the context of a certain language. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Now, words by themselves do not express an entire proposition (a complete thought, as Frege would have it), although a language speaker can recognize words. I submit when a language speaker recognizes a word, he forms an attitude toward a proposition; ie. there is a word in L and here is a token (R), or something like that. It is understanding (R) that is at issue here. So, at this point, I think, Wittgenstein would ask, "does it make sense to ask what half of this proposition is?" Don't we understand a proposition all at once, not in pieces? (and here we come to my take on the knight move simile) We may be able to break up a knight move in chess into two parts, three squares left, one square up, just as we can divide those things that represent propositions into letters, syllables, etc. but the parts by themselves do not express the proposition in any way and are not accumulative. It is not the symbol by itself but the recognition of the proposition that makes a symbol a word and recognition does not happen is stages but all at once.</p>
Dare to use your own reason. Kant

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