{"id":9556,"date":"2025-09-26T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9556"},"modified":"2025-05-22T19:45:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T19:45:41","slug":"looking-at-steven-mithens-book-2024-the-language-puzzle-part-4-of-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9556","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Steven Mithen’s Book (2024) “The Language Puzzle” (Part 4 of 23)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0025 Okay, let me consider what is displaced<\/em> when I utter the term, “piece in a jigsaw puzzle”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0025 What is the reality that is not present<\/em> when the spoken term<\/em> is used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, look.  A referent is pictured in the red circle.  The red circle indicates a referent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How intuitively obvious is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0026 At the same time, I cannot ignore the dyadic actuality where two real elements, corresponding to the edge of one piece<\/em> and the edge of another piece,<\/em> are contiguous, [fits].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0027 Plus, should I neglect that there is a normal context<\/em> that characterizes what is happening?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

0028 To me, not only is the referent<\/em> displaced by a spoken term, but the entire nested form that relates to the spoken term<\/em> is not present, or is present only in potential1<\/sub>, in the normal context of definition3<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Can I see the meaning, presence and message in the possibility of ‘an obvious fit’1<\/sub>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this why I am never going to get my “loan” back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0029 But, what am I really asking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, the question that I raise is, “Is a word<\/em> like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle?”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask, “Can I take Mithen’s ‘language puzzle’ literally?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the normal context of definition3<\/sub>,<\/em> the actuality of a spoken word or term2<\/sub><\/em> emerges from (and situates) the potential that spoken words sensibly fit together and that the fit is so good that it is easy to recognize1<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0030 But, what about the referent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, what about the piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is in the red circle?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the referent<\/em> has three commendable features.  The first is the image<\/em> (or the fragment of a big picture) that it bears<\/em>.  The second is that it can join other pieces<\/em> in an assembly of adjacent pieces<\/em>.  The third is that the thing that the spoken word would picture or point to, if it could serve as an image or index,<\/em> is displaced<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0031 It makes me wonder how speech-alone talk could bootstrap itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, Mithen has a hypothesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, before I get that far, I want to suggest that manual-brachial gestures can be a source for words because they do not fully displace the referent.  Instead, they call the referent to mind through the natural act of picturing and pointing<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard, manual-brachial word-gestures<\/em> allow a literal appreciation<\/em> of the metaphorical statement<\/em> that words are like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0032 Here is a diagram of the corresponding category-based nested form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The normal context of working in a team3<\/sub><\/em> brings the actuality2<\/sub> of patterns of iconic and indexal hand-talk2<\/sub><\/em> into relation with the potential of ‘assembling and locking in a big picture’1<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can I envision the meaning, presence and message1<\/sub>\u00a0that underlies each manual-brachial word-gesture2<\/sub>\u00a0in the normal context of team-work3<\/sub>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working in a team<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0what is happening3a<\/sub><\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0The possibility of ‘something happening’1a<\/sub><\/em>\u00a0corresponds to\u00a0‘assembling the pieces, locking them in and visualizing the big picture’1a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0025 Okay, let me consider what is displaced when I utter the term, “piece in a jigsaw puzzle”. 0025 What is the reality that is not present when the spoken term is used. Well, look.  A referent is pictured in the red circle.  The red circle indicates a referent. How intuitively obvious is that? 0026 At the same time, I cannot ignore the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[571],"class_list":["post-9556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-the-language-puzzle"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Steven Mithen's Book (2024) "The Language Puzzle" (Part 4 of 23) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9556\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Steven Mithen's Book (2024) "The Language Puzzle" (Part 4 of 23) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0025 Okay, let me consider what is displaced when I utter the term, “piece in a jigsaw puzzle”. 0025 What is the reality that is not present when the spoken term is used. 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