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The Tree eventually spreads into forty twigs, but it
branches out gradually: see the picture at left.
In every example, two or more things come together in
one's mind. From the ground upward, the first split is into things that fit or things that match.
The branch for things that fit spreads directly into six twigs, but the
branch for things that match (it is really the main stem, not just a
branch) makes a three-way split: there is a short barren stump with no
label*, the main stem continuing on up (named
"one mental and one external"), and a stout branch to the right
named "both external". Suppose you see a dog and remember having
seen it before; the memory is "in your head" whereas the dog is
out there in the real world --- that is what is meant by one mental and
one external. By contrast, when you see two socks and note that they
form a pair, the two items are both "out there" or external; neither is
mental in the way that a memory is, or a thing expected, or a thing
imagined.
The
"both external" branch splits five ways, into sounds, actions,
items in a row, items arranged symmetrically and loose items
that simply look alike. The main stem splits four ways, according
to whether the mental item is remembered, expected, imagined
or intended. And where the mental item is imagined, we separate
occasions where an item is imagined and then created (by a painter,
a poet or a speaker) from occasions where the external object exists
independently and promotes a mental response when observed; there
is something already present in the viewer's mind, perhaps vague and
subconscious, that makes the viewer think "Yes, that captures
what I vaguely feel".
(There is a refinement here that
readers may pursue if they wish.)
*The stump represents matching of two items that are
"both mental". For example, one might hear two jokes and store
them in memory. Perhaps a week later, mulling them over, one might notice
that in basic structure, they are alike --- just different settings or
narrative styles. The match that one notices is quite genuine, but
slightly abstract or nebulous so I have confined attention to the main
stem and right-hand branch.
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