Part of my point is that just as “Wall” and “blue” are words that can be assigned to meanings, “Left of the blue wall”, if used enough times, will eventually become a word in its own right, even if one doesn’t have the processing capabilities to combine the individual parts on the fly. If the researchers keep asking “go to the left of the blue wall”, and seem happy when you go to this particular place (that happens to be next to a wall that is blue), you will eventually get the point, even if you don’t realize why “left of the blue wall” is called what it is.
(I realize this doesn’t address why it would be preferable to call it “left of the blue wall” instead of “shmaznag”, which would be just as meaningful. I would expect “left of the blue wall” to be an easier fixed phrase to learn than “shmaznang”, though)
I actually had a paragraph about this exact point in an earlier version of this post, but it was poorly written and somewhat confusing, so I removed it recently.
Part of my point is that just as “Wall” and “blue” are words that can be assigned to meanings, “Left of the blue wall”, if used enough times, will eventually become a word in its own right, even if one doesn’t have the processing capabilities to combine the individual parts on the fly. If the researchers keep asking “go to the left of the blue wall”, and seem happy when you go to this particular place (that happens to be next to a wall that is blue), you will eventually get the point, even if you don’t realize why “left of the blue wall” is called what it is.
(I realize this doesn’t address why it would be preferable to call it “left of the blue wall” instead of “shmaznag”, which would be just as meaningful. I would expect “left of the blue wall” to be an easier fixed phrase to learn than “shmaznang”, though)
I actually had a paragraph about this exact point in an earlier version of this post, but it was poorly written and somewhat confusing, so I removed it recently.