The Language Bell
Language is like a bell. It sounds and it means. Sound is the external lace of language. It is merely a series ol disturbances in the air. The cluster or sequence of sounds,
0-YMt.JMI NAGAI
in Japanese mean nothing in themselves. When language gongs, it comes into contact with the mind. The sound carries internal meanings which are present to the mind ("It's 6pm. Time to go home"). Thus, we see the interlace between how the sound is represented, Phonetic Form (PF), and how the meaning is represented, the Logical Form (LF). Syntax (an intervening structure) connects the two.
~Syntax
Sound Phonetic representation
~ Meaning Semantic representation
(PF)
(LF)
What is the nature of the bridge between sound and meaning, and how does a child manage to acquire the syntactic interlace? 5