The Brain Shop

Peoples names usually indicate, directly or indirectly, the person’s hierarchy in the pack.
In some languages the personal hierarchic statement consists of a prefix accompanying the name (Count Tepes, Dr. Mengele). In other languages, such as Japanese, it is usually a suffix (Homer Simpson San).
I wonder if the fact that the affix denoting the person’s rank goes before or after the name has some association with the way a particular culture handles social hierarchies. The order in which the brain perceives and decodes the verbal or written expression may impose certain time limits to the behavioral response, especially when particular words, such as those indicating your level on the food chain, contain a high emotional load.

This entry was posted on April 30, 2010 at 01:35 and is filed under Neuroscience with tags hierarchy, language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.