ABSTRACT
Symbolic systems are sets of signs which are controlled and made workable by two different kinds of rules, semantic rules which determine which signs stand for what features of the world and syntactic rules which regulate way in which these signs are put together to form sentences. The regularities of usage and reference which are the outcome of these rules of language are conventional and arbitrary in the sense that they are the outcome of human habits and choices. In the case of natural languages, conventional rules are more obviously at work, though contemporary linguists have suggested that features common to all languages may be controlled by brain mechanisms. In the present century, the study of languages of very different origin and structure from those of Indo-European family (in particular the native languages of the Americas) has brought to light evidence suggesting a very close causal relationship between a man’s native language and his conceptual interpretation of his environment.
