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But the hypothesis is that the word for mother _in a certain language_ comes from that situation. Those breast-deprived babies you observe would not be creating
by unhammer 13y ago
But the hypothesis is that the word for mother _in a certain language_ comes from that situation. Those breast-deprived babies you observe would not be creating their own language (unless you do more than just observe :-/), so what would you be observing? A difference in frequency of ma-sounds from other babies?
- foobarqux 13y ago> But the hypothesis is that the word for mother _in a certain language_ comes from that situation. No it isn't. The hypothesis described in the article explains the purported cause for the universality of the word "Mama". And yes you would observe if the frequency of "ma" was lower which would tell you if the "ma" sound is behaviorally induced by suckling which is the claim described in the article.
- unhammer 13y agoIt's still about words that are part of a language, not about sounds made by one baby. The universality was about the sounds becoming part of the language. The process of creating a new word in language is not the same as the process of interpreting sounds as belonging to a certain word in a language. So you still have that bridge to gap between "higher frequency of ma" and how the word "mama" was created. Perhaps it's convincing, I'm not sure.