The symbolic abilities that underlie human language made human culture possible, forever setting us apart from all other animals. The human capacity for language has enabled this big-brained, loud-mouthed, featherless biped to overrun the earth - as if, by the gift of language, we are endowed by the gods with immortal souls. The vocabulary of any language is really a cultural heritage - a repository for all that previous generations deemed worthy of recognition. However, few things are less durable than the sound of a human voice. Claims about what a person knows, means, remembers, thinks or expects are speculative at best- words that are almost (but not exactly) what we wanted to say.

©1997