I look at a tiger. The actual tiger is not now in my brain. An image is represented and decoded in my brain. The relevant sensory cortex, cross-referencing with my long-term memory, flags up the concept ‘tiger’ and I’m done.
I look at the printed word ‘tiger’. The resulting image is now represented and decoded in my brain. The relevant sensory cortex, cross-referencing with my long-term memory, flags up the concept ‘tiger’ and I’m done.
Same process when I hear “Tiger!”, just via a different cortex. None of these things-that-enter-my-head is a tiger.
There is no hard, fast boundary between, say, a photorealistic image and a printed word. Neither of them is the referent. They’re both representations. Hieroglyphics are the missing link, if you like. Granted, a word may have nothing objectively to do with what it refers to, but a smiley :) looks nothing like a face, and we have no trouble decoding that. Why? Because we share common knowledge of that meme/word before we look. Nothing magical or different about words. Just a slightly different mental process of decoding before the cross-referencing and concept-flagging.
Language may well be hard-coded into the human brain, but to some extent this is because ‘language’ is how we experince the world: via signifiers and representations (yes, even when looking). The ‘language of abstract symbols’ (i.e. words) isn’t a separate magisterium!
Try for yourself. Taboo ‘word’ back to ‘information that enters my mind through medium x’. Then see if changing x fundamentally changes what happens in your brain.
So, What does a word point to?
The same as anything else that enters our heads.
I look at a tiger. The actual tiger is not now in my brain. An image is represented and decoded in my brain. The relevant sensory cortex, cross-referencing with my long-term memory, flags up the concept ‘tiger’ and I’m done.
I look at the printed word ‘tiger’. The resulting image is now represented and decoded in my brain. The relevant sensory cortex, cross-referencing with my long-term memory, flags up the concept ‘tiger’ and I’m done.
Same process when I hear “Tiger!”, just via a different cortex. None of these things-that-enter-my-head is a tiger.
There is no hard, fast boundary between, say, a photorealistic image and a printed word. Neither of them is the referent. They’re both representations. Hieroglyphics are the missing link, if you like. Granted, a word may have nothing objectively to do with what it refers to, but a smiley :) looks nothing like a face, and we have no trouble decoding that. Why? Because we share common knowledge of that meme/word before we look. Nothing magical or different about words. Just a slightly different mental process of decoding before the cross-referencing and concept-flagging.
Language may well be hard-coded into the human brain, but to some extent this is because ‘language’ is how we experince the world: via signifiers and representations (yes, even when looking). The ‘language of abstract symbols’ (i.e. words) isn’t a separate magisterium!
Try for yourself. Taboo ‘word’ back to ‘information that enters my mind through medium x’. Then see if changing x fundamentally changes what happens in your brain.
If the actual tiger were to enter your head, you’d probably not survive. It is also unlikely the entire tiger would fit.
Beware the typical mind fallacy. Other people may well experience it very differently.