Interesting, so that's three theories, now.
One, Andalite thought-speak transfers pure thought. (Think)
Two, Andalite thought-speak transfers non-vocal symbols. (Weathel)
Three, Andalite thought-speak transfers vocal, or at least auditory, symbols. (Shark)
Before I dig in to the linguistics, though, a response for Morf
could be I just misunderstood that, but "love" is not just "ai" in chinese. "xihuan" can also mean love, though to a slightly less extent.
Wiktionary says this to say about "ai4" and "xi3 huan1" (pinyin modified and hanzi removed to avoid ?s):
When used for people, "ai4" usually refers to romantic love. When used like this, older Mandarin speakers often describe the use of this term as overly "rou4 ma2" (adj. something that gives you the creeps, disgusting). For this reason, the word "xi3 huan1" (to like) might be used instead. Using the word xihuan literally means like, but when used in a romantic context (especially boyfriend/girlfriend), it actually means love. However, younger Mandarin speakers seem to have been influenced somewhat by Western culture, and are now using the verb ai much more often than was socially acceptable in the past.
Japanese does the same thing. The verb form, "aisu" is fairly rare. Saying like to mean love is common; except it's a different word from "xihuan": "suki" (written with the same character as "hao4" in Chinese).
By the way, that's all from Wiktionary; I don't really know Chinese and Japanese well enough to write that myself!
I don't really buy the pure-thought idea. Like Jen said, that would rule out needing metaphor in their language. Thus no shorm/shorm metonymy.
I don't really buy that thought-speak is limited
only to transmitting some kind of mind-words. Elfangor actually does use thought-speak to show an image of a Yeerk in #1. And, while I'm too lazy to find an example now, once the Animorphs start using thought-speak they can use it to transmit marginally-linguistic but very vocal expressions like laughter.
And, I don't really buy that thought-speak communicates a vocal internal-monologue. First, that would rule out the easy-enough-to-understand aspect of thought-speak (so very, very helpful for first contact!). But, secondly, without
any history of communication-by-sound, Andalites really shouldn't have audible internal monologues.
That's not to say that they
don't have internal monologues. It's really hard to pin down exactly what an internal monologue is, but here's an interesting result from memory tests. The task is to remember words printed on cards in English.
Native English speakers will have more trouble with near homophones like "TREE" and "THREE" than non-homophones like "CAR" and "MOOSE". If they have to speak, like saying "Jack and Jill went up the hill" while they memorize, they don't memorize as well.
Native ASL signers will have more trouble with near homophones like "VOTE" and "TEA" than other pairs.
http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/t/tea.htmhttp://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/v/vote.htmIf they have to do something with their hands while memorizing, they don't memorize as well.
In short, it's possible to have an non-vocal internal monologue. Sign language, in this case, takes the place of spoken language in organizing human thoughts.
http://www.dichotomistic.com/mind_readings_deaf%20speech.htmlSo, none of those three theories entirely works.
Ah, well, time for more speculation.
