Weird & random realizations

Yesterday, while talking with my advisor, we were discussing comparative words and how they are ambiguous without some reference. This was all in relation to some correspondence she had with another professor about some phase transition stuff in our evolutionary model. Anyway, we had thrown out the word, "warm", as an example. I then realized that when someone refers to something being warm, the reference by default is usually the speaker's body temperature. Simple, sure, but I don't ever recall thinking that explicitly.

The other thing I realized is why children who are beginning to talk end words like "mom" and "dad" with an "a". I think it is because they are still developing the muscles which aid in speaking. So it's easier to release those muscles quickly and airily when saying "mom" or "dad". Finishing those words requires restraint on the "m" and "d", especially after working out the "ma" or "da" sounds. I think it's easier for the muscles to repeat a sound that is soft like the two required, and/or making an "ee" sound is just more complicated than the "ah" sound. Therefore, it is probably most common for children to say "mama" and "dada".

Adam D Scott

Center for Neurodynamics
Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of Missouri at St. Louis
http://www.umsl.edu/~neurodyn/students/scott.html