Representation and language

pp. 1-8

in: Jay F. Rosenberg, Linguistic representation, Berlin, Springer, 1974

Abstract

The essential and characteristic human activity is representation — that is, the production and manipulation of representations. Except for the newborn and the severely brain-damaged, all humans, of whatever time and culture, engage in it, and, insofar as we can now say with any confidence (the verdict on dolphins and the data on Martians not yet having come in), only humans do.