Thread:User talk:Armondikov/Cognitive-linguistic mapping essay/reply (17)

Yes, we think without words. But we do communicate with words because mind-melding isn't possible. This is the problem.

It might be demanding an "aspie" level of precision, but so what? Aspergers is a label based on crossing a fairly arbitrary point on a smooth sliding scale of one particular mental attribute. Reposition this point and everyone has Aspergers. It doesn't particularly say that this only applies to some people. You're constantly making judgments about the world around you based on prior experience, and in one specific way all the symbols that you process that you receive from others. One of the things you presume is that your particular judgments and prior experiences must match up with someone else. One person can think of a particular ball and it will be, say, a typical soccer ball with white hexagons and black pentagons and about a foot across. They say "ball". The second person hears this and thinks of a baseball, with its two pieces and stitching. One is a soccer fan, the other is a baseball fan. They don't have to be aspies in order for their inferences to become important when one says to the other "pass me the ball".