Re: file searching/vista help

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

David B. Kronenfeld wrote:
>     Our gut feeling that there is some intrinsic connection between
> words and what they refer to
The English legal scholar Sir Edward Coke (an early champion of
the rights of Parliament against the Stewart monarchs) has some
interesting comments about names. "Names are, as it were, the
notes of things" is one of them and another is this:
Nomina si nescis, perit cognitio rerum; et nomina si perdas,
certe distinctio rerum perditur. (An thou knowest not the names,
the knowledge of the things perisheth; and if thou losest the
names, surely the distinction of the things is lost.")
> And, to make it maybe more fun, she lives in Russia with a Russian
> nanny, while her parents mostly speak English to her. So far, I gather,
> overlapping words--Russian and English--are no different for her than
> other overlaps--as "doggy" and "Izzy" (our dog's name, but not that
> specific for the tot).
I believe the received opinion among developmental psychologists
is that there is a "golden window of opportunity" in early
childhood when children will pick up any and as many languages as
they're exposed to. How long and to what extant it lasts seems to
vary enormously. I'm thinking of my father: Romanian, French, and
German he learned in the cradle; picked up a fair amount of
Italian in his youth while spending a few months in Italy; came
to this country about age 21, and by the time I came along (he
was 58) was speaking flawless, unaccented American English.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx