Concepts are the central part of language. I would argue that concepts serve as condensed linguistic representations of concrete or abstract entities, aimed at enhancing the precision and efficiency of thinking and communication.

I found it fascinating to ponder how new concepts have emerged in human language. One could argue that the entire history of the development of human language is essentially a series of births of new concepts and their enrichment and connotation with existing concepts. Thus, the development of human language is in one part the development of concept systems.

When the basis of the language had already been born, people arguably had the need to conceptualize and name more and more things in the world around them.

Let's time travel to the Stone Age. When the basis of the language had already been born, people arguably had the need to conceptualize and name more and more things in the world around them. Some of the first concepts and words probably were related to concrete things like family members ("mother", "father", "brother", " "sister" and "child"), animals ("man", "bear", "cat", "dog") and tools ("stick", and "axe"). Those then were followed by perhaps a slightly more abstract concepts such as actions and verbs like "sleeping", "eating", "talking", "jumping". As thinking and language developed further, yet more challenging and abstract concepts arose, for example, those related to feelings and intentions such as "joy ", "love", "sorrow", "hate" and community roles such as "chief", "shaman". Once the agrarian revolution and organized society emerged, a need arose for even more abstract concepts such as "nation", "story", "culture", "rules" , "law", "religion" and "war". Even later, as societies grew and developed, whole systematically organized areas of knowledge emerged, such as "administration", "economy", "the art of warfare", "mathematics", "philosophy", and "astronomy".

The creation and naming of concepts can be thought as innovations in language to fulfill thinking and communication gaps.

It could be argued that concepts and their names have arisen out of need as the human environment changed, culture, and thinking developed. The creation and naming of concepts can be thought as innovations in language to fulfill thinking and communication gaps. These gaps in linguistic thinking can be almost said to summon the birth of a new con...

Posts

Wikitag Contributions

Comments

Posts

Wikitag Contributions

Comments