The Method of Loci sounds very interesting (as well as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).
But if we're still presuming that speech is inherently linear, I think we're mistaking how the brain abstracts those sequences of texts. I haven't read the literature at all really, but I read On Intelligence (Jeff Hawkins), and my sense was that this lexing pass that happens when we greet language is happening very much in isolation before we start adding semantic meaning with 'hierarchies' or tree structures, etc. So the 'give off' from that linear feeding of word after word is pretty minimal.
Imho, the Method of Loci would apply greatly to how Greek language and literature works. There is a lot more investment of ideas into spatially separate, almost physical objects (Love is very much a physical god, etc.). This perhaps has the advantage of engaging the participant with those ideas more -- by activating the methods we use in our spatial reasoning. Similarly, in language, the flexibility of the word order really requires that you stack words in different locations, flexibly.
We read the Socratic dialogues linearly -- and Socrates leads us on what seems like a preordained line. But really there are lots of stacks and queues involved. It's a pretty dynamic process of finally finding a linear coherent structure that we're comfortable with. So in my mind it's still very dynamic.
But you make interesting points... Perhaps the best way to evoke the most information with language is to be aware of the distinction between the sequential and dynamic -- and to maximize the good parts of both. They're really yin and yang with each other -- great essay writing is a linear product, made of dynamic error-checking at each step, etc.
But if we're still presuming that speech is inherently linear, I think we're mistaking how the brain abstracts those sequences of texts. I haven't read the literature at all really, but I read On Intelligence (Jeff Hawkins), and my sense was that this lexing pass that happens when we greet language is happening very much in isolation before we start adding semantic meaning with 'hierarchies' or tree structures, etc. So the 'give off' from that linear feeding of word after word is pretty minimal.
Imho, the Method of Loci would apply greatly to how Greek language and literature works. There is a lot more investment of ideas into spatially separate, almost physical objects (Love is very much a physical god, etc.). This perhaps has the advantage of engaging the participant with those ideas more -- by activating the methods we use in our spatial reasoning. Similarly, in language, the flexibility of the word order really requires that you stack words in different locations, flexibly.
We read the Socratic dialogues linearly -- and Socrates leads us on what seems like a preordained line. But really there are lots of stacks and queues involved. It's a pretty dynamic process of finally finding a linear coherent structure that we're comfortable with. So in my mind it's still very dynamic.
But you make interesting points... Perhaps the best way to evoke the most information with language is to be aware of the distinction between the sequential and dynamic -- and to maximize the good parts of both. They're really yin and yang with each other -- great essay writing is a linear product, made of dynamic error-checking at each step, etc.