Mike Strand wrote:Good topic, Wootah!
This may help the discussion along: I think the Eskimos have many different concepts, and words, for "snow", to describe the different types of snow. I've seen a fair amount of snow and have described it in a few various ways; e.g., (1) heavy, sticky and wet, and (2) dry, light, powdery. But apparently some Eskimo peoples have a lot larger vocabulary, and even separate nouns, for many varieties of snow.
This may suggest that we can see or experience things, and even different types of a thing, and deal with or interact with these things and their variations, before making up words for them.
Yes, I would say all of that snow is bound to catch your attention from time to time. Perhaps your example says that attention determines our most important experiences. This also leaves open the possibility of experiencing the world from different points of view. In this case language being refined to compensate for the dominant perspective.