443. Suppose that in a certain language
there were no word corresponding to our “know”. – The people simply make
assertions. (“That’s a tree”, etc.) Naturally it can occur for them to make
mistakes. And so they attach a sign to the sentence which indicates how
probable they take a mistake to be – or should I say, how probable a mistake is
in this case? This latter can also be indicated by mentioning certain
circumstances. For example “Then A said to B ‘...’. I was standing quite close
to them and my hearing is good”, or “A was at such-and-such a place yesterday.
I saw him from a long way off. My eyes are not very good”, or “There is a tree
over there: I can see it clearly and I have seen it innumerable times before”.
if there was a language with no word
corresponding to our ‘know’ –
you would have the makings of an
unpretentious language –
and an unpretentious people
no – it would not naturally occur to them
to make mistakes –
mistakes are creatures of knowledge –
if all they did was simply make assertions
–
with no pretence to knowledge –
it would be most likely –
that they would regard their assertions –
as uncertain
© greg t. charlton. 2010.
