Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Untrained Experts
Did you know that the two funniest sounding words in the English language are ‘boots” and “zucchini”?
No, really. I have it on good authority.
You see, if you say either of these words to my little boy he just erupts in laughter. No other words do this. Not “boy” or “ball” or “baby” or “butts”. Not “xylophone” or “zoo” or “xenophobe”. Not “mommy” or “daddy”. Not even words that I think are funny sounding like “ladder” or “hammer”. Just “boots” and “zucchini” do the trick.
So I ask myself what this means. We are dealing with mind that has zero connotative understanding of what these words mean. Although he may be beginning to grasp the meaning of words like “mommy” or “milk”, “boots” and “zucchini” are still concepts beyond him. So, he doesn’t think the meaning of the words is funny.
The only thing he knows is what the word sounds like to his ears. Just little bits of (as of yet) meaningless, conceptual code he has not deciphered. Going only on sounds, he has determined that “boots’ and “zucchini” rate a laugh and other words do not.
I find this fascinating, you see, because it took a completely unskilled and untrained mind to make the determination about what truly is a funny sounding word and what is not. No amount of expert training could have produced the same result. In fact, training would have tainted the result. Such experts would bring their own opinions about the words to the table (such as hammer sounding really funny to me).
Perhaps expertise in a subject is not all it is cracked up to be. An interesting thought.
No, really. I have it on good authority.
You see, if you say either of these words to my little boy he just erupts in laughter. No other words do this. Not “boy” or “ball” or “baby” or “butts”. Not “xylophone” or “zoo” or “xenophobe”. Not “mommy” or “daddy”. Not even words that I think are funny sounding like “ladder” or “hammer”. Just “boots” and “zucchini” do the trick.
So I ask myself what this means. We are dealing with mind that has zero connotative understanding of what these words mean. Although he may be beginning to grasp the meaning of words like “mommy” or “milk”, “boots” and “zucchini” are still concepts beyond him. So, he doesn’t think the meaning of the words is funny.
The only thing he knows is what the word sounds like to his ears. Just little bits of (as of yet) meaningless, conceptual code he has not deciphered. Going only on sounds, he has determined that “boots’ and “zucchini” rate a laugh and other words do not.
I find this fascinating, you see, because it took a completely unskilled and untrained mind to make the determination about what truly is a funny sounding word and what is not. No amount of expert training could have produced the same result. In fact, training would have tainted the result. Such experts would bring their own opinions about the words to the table (such as hammer sounding really funny to me).
Perhaps expertise in a subject is not all it is cracked up to be. An interesting thought.
R.T. Lemur 2:10 PM
1 Comments:
boots is kinda obvious... since it come from the root "boo" but zucchini has me stumped since xylophone does nothing for him.
Have you tried other squashes like butternut and spaghetti and acorn and pumpkin? I think more study is definately in order. Comics everywhere are counting on your research.
Have you tried other squashes like butternut and spaghetti and acorn and pumpkin? I think more study is definately in order. Comics everywhere are counting on your research.