And each organism is identical to its biology. — NOS4A2
I showed you one sense in which many people (biological organisms) use it, including myself. — NOS4A2
I cannot believe words transport meaning from A to B — NOS4A2
It is determined by your biology. It was your biology that learned, understands, and speaks English and not Chinese. — NOS4A2
And thus contradict your claims about words. Words have meaning and the words used in the dictionary inform us of the meaning of the word in question. They are then not arbitrary.
They do what you say you cannot believe they do:
My biology did not determine whether I grew up learning English and not Chinese. If I was adopted and grew up in a Chinese family my biology would remain the same, but I would speak Chinese rather than English.
If words had meaning you wouldn’t need a definition. — NOS4A2
You’d just hear the word or say the word, and the meaning would float through the air in the sound-waves, from one mind to the other. Except they don’t do what you believe they do ... — NOS4A2
so you refer to a dictionary, contradicting your own claims. — NOS4A2
?Words have meaning and the words used in the dictionary inform us of the meaning of the word in question. — Fooloso4
Your biology allows for language acquisition, and determines the faculty of language in general. — NOS4A2
Our biology plays a role in our ability to use language ... — Fooloso4
...but the fact that I speak English and not Chinese is not determined by my biology. — Fooloso4
In a dictionary words are used to define the meaning of other words. You might need a dictionary to define some of the words used to define the word in question, but it is not an endless cycle. Some may rely on a dictionary more than others but no one can use a dictionary who does not understand the meaning of any of the words.
That is not what I believe words do. It does, however, seem to be a picture of your own making that you have either struggled against or set up to knock down.
but the fact that I speak English and not Chinese is not determined by my biology.
This is possible because you are already in possession of the meaning, which you are able to supply to the text in order to make sense of it — NOS4A2
If meaning was in the words, learning the language would be unnecessary. — NOS4A2
It was my understanding that you believed words transport meaning from A to B ... — NOS4A2
You’d just hear the word or say the word, and the meaning would float through the air in the sound-waves, from one mind to the other. — NOS4A2
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