Language as a Way of Knowing Assignment
1. "Language was given to man to disguise his thoughts."
I think that this quote is very very deep. In so many ways it is true. A lot of people don't speak their minds and hide their thoughts behind their words. You could deceive someone in so many ways just by saying something that you don't mean or something completely opposite. It could be for many reasons too. It could be that you just want to be polite. For example, when someone gives you food but it is disgusting, it would be rude to just straight out say "that's disgusting." Nobody can go into your mind and listen to your thoughts. Language is supposed to be used to communicate your thoughts, but many people cover up their thoughts with their words.
2. Human Science: Is language unique to human beings?
Language does not just apply to human beings. Animals have a way of communicating
between each other. They have to in order to work together and live together.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3430481.stm
This link goes to an article about communication between animals. It talks about how scientists
are discovering that apes can learn sign lanuage and are being able to communicate. They
also realized that animals can connect "vocabulary" with different sounds. For some animals
this is their language.
3. BLOG QUESTIONS
2. What are some examples of words that have entered the English language as a result of the
computer generation?
I think there are a bunch of words that have become a part of everyday English language because of all the different computer sites and popularity. For example, facebooked, tweeted, or even picniked has become words that people use in conversations. I think basically the sites names are now used every day and people would understand what that person is saying.
3. Try to define as precisely as possible these three words...
a) triangle: a triangle is a shape with three sides that are connected at each other's ends.
b) love: love is a very strong emotion that can drive people to do crazy things-- it means to
care about someone a lot to the point where you cannot imagine life without them.
c) table: a table is a piece of furniture that has legs to stand and a surface to hold different
objects.
For these three different things, love was the hardest to explain because it's the most complicated. You can't really explain love. You have to feel it in order to understand I think. Triangle was the easiest to explain because it's so simple. Table was in the middle because it was kind of simple but a bit more complicated than love. The difference between these three things is that one of them is simply a general shape, one is an actual object, and one is an emotion, and possibly one of the most complicated.
5. To what extent is your use of languages accompanied by images? Does every word conjur up an image or only some of them?
I think words can definitely create images in people's heads, but depending on the words that are used. Not every word can make out pictures or images in someone's head. In order to put a picture in someone's head using words, you must use a lot of descriptions and adjectives. It wouldn't be easy to conjure up detailed images for someone who, for example, is blind. However, I think that we, as human beings, have words that are associated with images. Especially if you are referring to an actualy object. Especially a familiar object would have images connected with it.
6. Do you think a robot (or Siri) could use and respond appropriately to language? What differences in real life would that make if that were the case?
To some extent I think that Siri could use and respond to language appropriately. It can listen and do what you ask it to, but can it pick up on slang and other terms that may not be known by everyone?
This video is of a man who is trying to use Siri, but it cannot understand his accent at all. This could be a problem because I am sure there are people all around the world having this issue. Accents are a part of language, so I think Siri can understand just with some limitations.
If Siri really could understand and respond to language I think that would be amazing. It could open doors to so many new technologies. For some reason it seems like we are always looking for ways to make life easier on ourselves. It seems that this talking phone that will do what you tell it to is another way that makes everything easier on us. What could this do to computers or other technologies? What if we could use something like Siri for everything?
10. Birds fly and planes fly. Since fish swim, why don't we say that submarines also swim? What do submarines do?
I am not sure why we wouldn't say that submarines swim? It makes so much sense, yet it seems so wrong when you say it out loud... Birds and planes not only are both in the air, but they also seem to have the same shape and way of moving about. Fish and submarines don't really move in the same way or don't even have the same structure. I am not really sure what submarines do... float maybe? submerge?
11. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of everyone having a common language?What would be gained and what would be lost?
Obviously a huge advantage of having a common language would be being able to communicate with each other without any barriers. Maybe there could be peace with everyone? Part of why there are conflicts is miscommunications. There wouldn't be miscommunications if there was a universal language. Everyone would feel more connected in a way because they shared the same language. It's having something in common with everyone which could be good.
However, there would be many disadvantages as well... If there was a common language I am sure most people would prefer to use that language just because it would be probably the most used in the world. What would happen to all the other languages? All languages are precious and shouldn't just be thrown aside. Language is a part of culture as well. It can explain where someone came from. Losing your language could take away a part of you and your culture.
I think this video is hilarious. And it's kind of related to the idea of how we all have different languages. If we had a common language, they would probably understand how to do jumping jacks.
19. Do you agree with the old rhyme "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"? In light of the effects of cyber bullying how might you analyze this quote?
I do not agree with this old rhyme at all. In middle school it was fun to sing out, but once you actually look at the words, I realized this is not true at all. Sure physical blows hurt, but words hurt just the same or possibly even more. Words can cut deep no matter what anyone says. Cyberbullying is a really good example.
http://puresight.com/Cyberbullying/cyber-bullying-statistics.html
Above is a link to statistics of cyber bullying, which is actually very surprising.
4. Comments on videos
In the first ted talk, the guy is talking about metaphors. He talks about how important metaphors are to show big emotions. I do agree with this because metaphors are very powerful in terms of language. It's like comparing something to something else that gives it so much more depth and emotions. He also talks about how we cannot ignore the literal meaning of words. I think this is so interesting. It would be cool to do an experiment testing this theory.
I thought the other ted talk with the guy who was using all these symbols was kind of weird. It shows how we basically don't even need language. There are so many different uses of technology out there. Is language even necessary?
There is also an infograph, which is also very interesting. It talks of how language is misused today. Nobody finds words interesting anymore. It's so sad because back in the day words is all we had to communicate with each other. What happened to hand written letters?