Asakiyume mita

I love its worldview.

I can't believe I never saw it before! And I consider myself a TNG fan.

This this this. I still remember how it blew my teenage mind.

I think you will love it.

It really is a knockout. I'm so glad I've finally gotten to see it! (I was moving to Japan when it first aired)

I really love it too.

It was very inspiring, such a different tone and outlook from nowadays.

I don't know that much about linguistics or how the brain works, but it's true that no human language/society works this way, and it may be impossible given our way of understanding language. Your points seem pretty sound to me.

For the sake of argument, I'll say that I can imagine people's minds working in such a way that they didn't think to rearrange the small units of language (the verbs and nouns, etc.) into freestanding sentences that would explain things. In other words, I can imagine people having a conception of "walls" that attaches to the word "walls" and of "fell" that attaches to the word "fell" etc., but no habit (and maybe no possibility) of using those independent of some piece of cultural knowledge. Sort of like having numbers as adjectives to describe things (these sheep are fluffy, large, and two, these bowls of water are shallow, cool, and two) but not having a concept of numbers as freestanding abstractions. In the episode, "Shaka, when the walls fell" is used in instances of setback and defeat, and I imagine if people used it around you as a small child every time those instances arose, you'd get the meaning. If there are other phrases with Shaka in them, you might get a sense of Shaka's overall story.

But yeah: it's hard to imagine how you'd get new information into the system--how would "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel" be conveyed to the rest of the society, who weren't there? And, as you suggest, that retroactively makes one wonder how the initial phrases could ever have gotten established.

I guess the best I can think is that you'd have a society in which straight talking, without references, is very weak and underdeveloped, and a very strong preference for talking in references. But that's still a step back from talking entirely in references.

I hope you get a chance! It's a good episode.

That's fascinating about the word "winner"! And yes, a lot of communication does work that way, more so in some cultures or subcultures than others, but we can all recognize it as a thing we do. You know you've begun to feel at home in a culture when you get the casual referents.

♥ ♥ ♥

Right--it really is something that happens in any culture; I think some just make a bigger deal about it. And, for instance, Australians and Americans both speak English, and we might have some in common based on that ("Feeling like 'casting off this mortal coil,' are we? Well remember, you never know 'what dreams might come' if once you do") but on the other hand, some are even culture-specific (though America has a pretty hegemonic culture, so its ones get spread around). But if, for instance, there was one from "Man from Snowy River," most Americans wouldn't get it, even though it would be in English.