From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu 17 Oct 2002 - 03:31:52 GMT
>
> > >...a mental predisposition to engage in instances of certain
> > >behaviors more frequently than one might engage in them in its
> > >absence.
> > >
> > Hmmm. That would make behaviors such a learning our first language a
> > meme. It would include all the hardwired behaviors we inherit as
> > members of the human race. All humans have a predisposition to learn
> > language. Somehow that doesn't distinguish memes from inherited
> > behaviors. Are there any other characteristics that would distinguish
> > them further?
> >
>That their particular form is not genetically required (that is, they are
>not
>innate). The capacity to learn a language is part and parcel of the
>human condition, but the languages we do indeed learn are arbitrary
>human constructions. They could just as easily for us be other
>languages.
> >
> > Grant
> >
Yes, we have a predisposition to learn whatever language we grow up hearing,
just as a gosling has a predisposition to follow whoever walks by on two
legs right after it hatches from the egg. But I wouldn't call the gosling's
behavior a meme any more than I would call learning language a meme. But I
would call the elements of the language I do learn memes. That gives me a
way to distinguish the language memes from language per se.
Gtrant
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