Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Robert,

Thanks for writing, and it was good to have your input. It is nice of 
you to provide further information. I would like to comment on one 
statement you made.

> On to more: Harold's appeal to the "thought process" is really 
> blurring the line
> between pschology and linguistics.  What we think we do when we form sentences
> may in fact have nothing to do with what the mind actually does.  We 
> have to be
> much more careful here, and simple anecdotal evidence really proves nothing in
> this regard.

If this sentence formation were an unconscious process, I might have 
more sympathy with such a statement. But we are speaking here of 
written language. I don't know about you, but I think when I write. 
I choose my words carefully and put my sentences together 
deliberately. To say what we think we do when we form sentences may 
have nothing to do with what the mind actually does seems hard to 
swallow. I construct sentences a certain way to accomplish definite 
ends, and if the sentence does not seem to be succeeding, I add and 
subtract words, change them, and move them around. I may rewrite 
whole paragraphs to make the point clearer or communicate more 
simply. To say I should ignore the thought process strikes me as 
removing the communicator from the communication. If we retain the 
communicator, the problems he faces in conveying a message are quite 
similar to the ones I face. And these same issues can reappear in 
other languages.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard