Many of us do not realize how the development of language has actually affected not only our world and culture, but more specifically shaped our ideas. Since the development of language around 5000BC the human race gained a new form of expression that each culture developed into its own unique form.
What we as a group decided we should further examine is the Sapirwhorf hypothesis. This states that different languages produce different ways of thinking. Therefore each language should have certain aspects that wouldn’t translate into another or wouldn’t convey the same meaning, so consider…
Take an idea like freedom or slavery and questioning the fact of whether these things would exist without the actual word (Freedom) existing. (Let’s say a totalitarian government in America takes control and decides to remove the words rebellion, disloyalty, traitor, coup, and revolution or there exists a culture without these words, would these ideas still exist for the people without language to express them?) After you have responded to this question, then try to think of some words in your language that would be hard to translate and explain why. (If you only speak English, consider English words that would be hard to express in another language.)
Here are some interesting, perhaps even funny videos that could aid you in your thinking process about language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHQ2756cyD8
George Carlin explains how perception changes with words, but the overall idea or fact is the same.
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16 comments:
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis states that the nature of a particular language influences the thought of the speaker. Different languages bring about different patterns of thought in an individual.
I believe words are formed from a specific action and not the other way around, words do not initiate an action. When something happens a person invents a word to describe the action. So if the word freedom or slavery was taken out of our vocabulary, the action and need for such a word to describe it would still exist. People may then form another word (lets say "yopil" for example)it does not matter if the word is "real" or not it is the meaning associated with the word that matters, it will still have the same meaning as Freedom or Slavery or whatever action the person wishes associate with that word. So if the words Freedom and Slavery were taken out the dictionary the feeling would still exist because its simply part of human nature.
Theres this word in Cantonese, Sang, thats used to describe seafood that smells/taste raw or fresh from the sea. Things that smell or taste too "ocean-ish" is described as Sang in Chinese. The closes word in English that I can think of is the word "Gamy" but that word isn't restricted to just seafood.
I think the sense of freeness comes first, it's not the word freedom.I pretty much agree with what Calvin said. It is the action,that is giving a meaning to the word, not the word it self.We use different words to express the sense of freeness, for example in Bengali language we use the word "SHADHINOTA" which has same meaning as freedom.Therefor, the word freedom it self doesn't mean anything, it is the action,that is defining the word. The word freedom is nothing but a symbol which express the feeling of freeness.
I believe that for a word to have a meaning it should be universal. Though different areas have different lexicons(dictionaries), words with similar meanings exist. Because words have similar meanings but different spellings, this enables people to learn foreign languages. I also believe that everyone has a common basic knowledge of the world around us. It is more than gestures and movement. Before we are even asked a question or ask one, we assume that the other person has been where we have been. In other terms, people come across simliar situations and have the answers we are looking for.
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Words definitely do shape the idea or perception that we have acquired from Birth. It struck me how the word "nigger" was used so bluntly 14 years ago. And even to say racism has come a long way, I'm assured that it still exists today, yet only behind closed doors. Now people know not to say the word "nigger" and hide the word itself. But Kyra made a strong point today that we shouldn't have to hide anything, and that if racism had really come a long way, then the word "nigger" wouldn't even exist.
I believe that humans place meanings to words. Our vocabulary consists of many simple words to most easily describe the subject at hand. Methods of communication were created by people because they had emotions that defined the words before the words became apart of their vocabulary.
People know what pain, oppression, and happiness is regardless of whether there are words that exist to describe such emotions or not. There are many nations that are technologically and economically behind compared to the rest of the world; this divides all cultures for only particular groups of people are familiarized with certain things. Certain nouns will not exist in one society because the object itself is not known by the people of that society. Although we are all not on the same page technologically and/or economically, there is still a universal language that exists for emotions.
Each society places negative and positive connotations to certain terms. This leads our prose to be different from those of other societies but regardless of the alteration of everyone's use of speech, people are still attempting to convey the same message, they just do so differently.
I love all your thoughts AND what I am noticing is your using a lot of your emic thinking but very little etic thinking in your analysis of the questions at hand. What in the chapter can you bring to the question that might be bigger than simply what you think? Prof. G
Language Diversity Activity
We designed this activity to:
- Demonstrate Language differences and similarities
- Determine whether communication with no base language is possible
- Demonstrate the importance of context in communication
- Phonetic and Kinesics Assessment
To perform the activity:
1.Pick two students, International student and Local Student
2.Give the International student a question he must communicate through his language to the local student.
3.Give the local student a context in which the meeting takes place (try to change it around and give a context that has no relation to the question)
4.Start off with greetings (Try to greet people the way you do in your culture)
5.Then talk it out and try anyway possible to get your question across
6.After the exercise evaluate the results
I completely agree with the post "LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION". In my opinion action is what defines a word. People would not know or understand the meaning of the word "freedom" without the actions that they most often associate it with. This also applies to the word "slavery," like Calvin has implied removing the word slavery from the dictionary would not erase any feelings as well as knowledge of what slavery is nor would it erase its past. Action plays a major role in how we as human beings interpret words.
I agree with what star89 just said, and same with everybody else mentioned. the definition of a word is a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes blackʹbirdʹ from blackʹ birdʹ. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.(Definition from www.dictionary.com) Actions and events happen before a word is actually made. So I don't think taking out a word would take out the concepts and meanings the word represents.
I found this pretty interesting video on learning to speak body...why people make certain body gestures and where it comes from. This is the link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x9YTxff3pHU
Certainly different languages can generate new and very different ideas and ways of thinking. That doesn't necessarily mean that it can't translate into another other languages. I believe all over the world no matter what language, there is always a certain idea that is at least a bit similar and can be expressed in another language. And i agree with what calvin said. words are created by action. If no action were present or had been done, there would be no use of such a word or even a idea or concept to create such a word.
The fact that caught my attention the most is not just that language is so powerful whewn it comes to how we view the world and each other. But, in the video, the same group of brown eye pupils who experienced discrimination and fell its unfairness, turned around ready to make others bare it. What does that tell us about the human nature????
this is a test.
I personnaly think that people inside a same nation judge people from other parts of the country only regarding to the way they speak and behave. For example, in France people from the big cities consider people from the north as boring and unable to do anything and the people from south as lazy.Do you have the same kind of stereotypes in your countries??????????
i agree with starr89. if you try to communicate with a child that has not yet developed an understanding for language, you can communicate with them through expressions and body movements. and it is the same as we get older. our languages were developed to express our feelings and thoughts, but without language, we can still express them.
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