MOTION MOUNTAIN

thought and language 257
TA B L E 20 Language basics.
Aspect
Value
Humanphonemes c.70
Englishphonemes 44
Germanphonemes 40
Italianphonemes 30
WordsoftheEnglishlanguage (morethanall c.350000
otherlanguages, withthepossibleexceptionof
German)
Numberoflanguages onEarthintheyear2000 c.6000
There are human languages based on facial expressions, on gestures, on spoken words, on
whistles, on written words, and more.The use ofspoken language is considerably younger
than the human species; it seems that it appeared only about two hundred thousand years
ago. Written language is even younger, namely only about six thousand years old. But the
set of concepts used, thevocabulary, is still expanding. For humans, the understanding of
language begins soon after birth (perhaps even before), the active use begins at around a
year of age, the ability to read can start as early as two, and personal vocabulary continues
to grow as long as curiosity is alive.
Physics being a lazy way to chat about motion, it needs language as an essential tool.
Of the many aspects of language, from literature to poetry, from jokes to military orders,fromexpressionsofencouragement,dreams,love
and emotions, physics uses only
a small and rather special segment. This segment is defined by the inherent restriction
to talk about motion. Since motion is an observation, i.e., an interaction with the environment
that several people experience in the same way, this choice puts a number of
restrictions on the contents – the vocabulary – and on the form – the grammar – of such
discussions.
For example, from the definition that observations are shared by others, we get the
requirement that the statements describing them must be translatable into all languages.
But when can a statement be translated? On this question two extreme points of view are
possible: the first maintains thatall statements can be translated, since it follows from the
properties of human languages that each of them can express every possible statement.
In this view, we can say:
⊳ Only sign systems that allow one to express the complete spectrum of humanmessagesformahumanlanguage.
Thisdefinitionoflanguagedistinguisheshumanspokenandsignlanguagefromanimal
languages, such asthesigns usedby apes, birds or honeybees, andalso fromcomputer
languages, such as Pascal or C. With this meaning of language, all statements can be
translatedbydefinition.
It is morechallenging for a discussionto follow theopposing view, namely that precise
translation is possible only for those statements which use terms, word types and
grammatical structures found in all languages. Linguistic researchhas invested consid-
Motion Mountain – The Adventure of Physics copyright © Christoph Schiller June 1990–November 2015 free pdf file available at www.motionmountain.net