The Fuzzy Nature of “Aaaah”

The other day I took Rea to the language lab at the University of Manitoba. It must have been the first day of classes at the university. All the students were walking around with yellow drawstring bags. I certainly felt out of place pushing a stroller but I did see another stroller pass by as I had passed a large “parent orientation” chalk outline on the sidewalk. It was a small feeling of a flashback to be back at university on first day of classes – minus the stroller.

Once I found my way through the maze of buildings and halls, we arrived at the language lab, a set of small rooms that led from one to another to the back isolation room. There were three screens only one of which Rea had to watch. I put on headphones to listen to music that droned with static while Rea had to watch the monitor and listen to some different inflections of “aaah”. The researchers wanted to see how toddlers differentiated between different emotional tones. The study was quick and we were out of there in no time but not before Rea could choose her toy for participating. Rea had earned her first keep.

The study was not individualized because the researchers wanted aggregate data. I don’t know the particulars of the experiment but it was interesting nonetheless. Afterwards, I did wonder about how language shapes us and the modes of communication. This really is important in the internet age because there are countless experiments, studies and resources on language and never mind the challenges of making the web accessible to all people of all languages.

I tend to think of modes of communication in the body as being either electrical or hormonal. Some may claim there is a third mode of communication, the spirit or soul, but that is best left to your local place of worship. If the only mode of communication is electrical then I am 100% sure that a sufficiently sophisticated program could emulate human intelligence. Language is on the surface very linear: strings of characters make the alphabet, strings of letters make words, strings of words make sentences, sentences paragraphs, paragraphs chapters, chapters books, books shelves and shelves libraries. A similar pattern exists for programming languages but with logical branches everywhere. Language then is at best a fuzzy approximation of reality. Only when numbers that eventually become mathematics are used does language become a more accurate model of reality. Throw emotions in and then everything is fuzzy again.

“Aaaah.”