dear cherished colleague marthea,
jung distinguished signs from symbols. i would seperate language, by my definition, as a sign, from music, a symbol. where a symbol can be misinterpreted, a sign can only be misunderstood.
with the use of a language (the word kind), we are attempting to be as specific as possible in communicating our point- a sign. in our use of music, we may be attempting to be specific or not, yet, with that message comes more than we meant and, often, more than we know- a symbol.
body language is inadvertent. a lie detector is reading body language. body language is at best a symbol. it is so vague, we'd be better off ignoring it. we'd certainly be better off not assigning specific meanings to it.
i don't care if we call it language, i just think there is an essential difference as i have described above.
(what is poetry? what if keypads were touch sensitive? would our e-mails reflect body language?)
marthea, if this is our first argument, it sure has been fat.
have a fly day, mike (ps. you know, like the kids)
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