... Because it's incredibly convenient to apply a universal name to something. Otherwise there's margin for confusion.
Why is Anything Called Anything?
- Thread starter YesYesYesandYes
- Start date
Well it obviously arouse out of a need to communicate. When the earliest proto-humans needed to get across to his commrades that a particular set of grunting noises he was making indicated that hot burning yellowish thing he'd just made by rubbing two sticks together.
As others have said, the vast majority of words in a language which refer to an object, idea or action have no relation to the objects that they refer to, beyond the fact that they refer to it. So water is called what it is because we have to refer to it by something, and saying or writing the word "water" is how it evolved to be referred to (in the English language). Words are semantically arbitrary, in other words.YesYesYesandYes said:
Do you mean the neurological basis for grammar and language, or the historical basis for it? I'm going to assume you mean the former, but it is quite incredible to read about the scanty progress that has been made.Anarchemitis said:
As I'm sure you know, syllables are neither the basic unit of meaning in a language (morphemes) nor the basic unit of sound in a language (phonemes). So while syllables obviously evolved over time, it was rarely because of their capacity as syllables.thylasos said:
You seem to think this is some unexplained miracle, like "where did we come from?" As romantic as that sounds, I'm afraid it is nothing that grand. This isn't some indefinite, infinite, or even hugely mysterious thing. It's etymology. Language. It helps us communicate, allowing us to work together or communicate an elaborate concept with a degree of clarity.YesYesYesandYes said:
So how did all that start? Why the most primitive humans, of course. They saw something, like fire, and chose some sound to assign to it. It could have been a lone effort, or a collaboration involving their whole tribe. In any case, they developed their own words and word systems, and as they needed to communicate more elaborate things, they came up with more elaborate words and ways of saying them.
Was there something before Latin? Of course. But, to be perfectly honest, I do not know what it is or how it came to be. What I can tell you is a simple search on Google or Wikipedia regarding it or etymology in general will answer many of your questions.
What something is called is entirely arbitrary - there is nothing about an object or concept that can be discovered that reveals what it should be called.
In other words, what something is called is a social fact, like what side of the street you drive on - it doesn't matter what you call something (or what side of the street you drive on), but it's very important that everyone in a social group agrees about it.
In other words, what something is called is a social fact, like what side of the street you drive on - it doesn't matter what you call something (or what side of the street you drive on), but it's very important that everyone in a social group agrees about it.
You would probably need a time machine to find out where every name comes from.
Related question, How do we know that the colors we see are the same colors everyone else sees? The color you have been told is orange could be blue to another person's eyes, but both of you would call it orange because that is what you were taught.
Related question, How do we know that the colors we see are the same colors everyone else sees? The color you have been told is orange could be blue to another person's eyes, but both of you would call it orange because that is what you were taught.
Well, I'm trying to get across a basic point, rather than teaching a course in linguistics here, especially to a seemingly obtuse OP.Aphroditty said:
I entirely appreciate your point.
The fact I've already had three strong ales may also be a contributing factor to my linguistic imprecision.
I know someone who would.Ladette said:Because the Rock said so, and are you going to argue with him?
OT: That's just the way the human mind works. Let's say you're a four-year old and you see a tree for the first time. You have no clue what to call it, but you know what it is. In the end you have to call it something, so you give it a name and remember it for future reference.
Eventually, people began to group together and the words they had for different things began to meld. As these groups became more tight-knit, language became more sophisticated, and thus words became standardized into what we know today.
This question is easily answered. for any general, nonspecific word, it is simply a name we have given to it, and the name we recognize it by. It has already been stated that this is arbitrary.
In another sense, a word in most modern languages is formed because of it's relation to an ancestor language, and so forth back to originating language. So by this argument, A is called A because someone else called it A and it is most recognizable by the name "A."
I am much aware that this has been answered in different words many times before, while the same concept, in this very thread.
In another sense, a word in most modern languages is formed because of it's relation to an ancestor language, and so forth back to originating language. So by this argument, A is called A because someone else called it A and it is most recognizable by the name "A."
I am much aware that this has been answered in different words many times before, while the same concept, in this very thread.
The short answer is because the word you are using grew out of other words. Which grew out of other words. Which...yada yada yada. Go back far enough and you will reach a point the, "Words" were so basic and primitive, you don't really have to question where they came from. Perhaps the first words were a grunt of approval that was understood on an instinctual level, a scream of anger, and a happy moan of sex. And in much the same way that the relatively simple first move of a chess game turns into something vastly more complicated, those psuedo-words become modern day language.
The long answer is 20 lifetimes of studying linguistics along with inventing a time machine so you can observe that early language first hand
The long answer is 20 lifetimes of studying linguistics along with inventing a time machine so you can observe that early language first hand
We need language to converse. Originally, words probably just sounded descriptive of their meaning, but as they have changed and become more complicated with time, now we have the words we have.YesYesYesandYes said:
I've always wondered that. I tried explaining it to a friend but he didn't get what I was saying. After an hour of explaining he finally got it but he said it's not possible because of the light spectrum or something.I.N.producer said:
I still think it could be true. Or is there a way to actually disprove it?
Oh and on topic, in Urdu, we call it aag, which literally translates to fire.