When it comes to language, we're all wired the same. Humans havepretty much the same intuitions about the same kinds of phenomena inlots and lots of different languages. If I say "You that look understandidea can," you have a very different intuition than if I say "Look, youcan understand that idea,"even though the words are the same. There'sa part of you at the unconscious level that tells you that one of thosesentences is well-formed in a way that the other is not.

My understanding is that languageis the accumulated wisdom of a group of people. Out of a potentiallyinfinite amount of sensory experience, language picks out those thingswhich are repetitive in the experience of the people developing thelanguage and that they have found useful to attend to in consciousness.

If I use any words that don't have direct sensory referents, the onlyway you can understand those—unless you have some program todemand more sensory-based descriptions—is for you to find thecounterpart in your past experience.

There's an illusionthat people understand each other when they can repeat the samewords. But since those words internally access different experiences—which they must—then there's always going to be a difference inmeaning.