« Seems like the perfect person to eat a perfect orange | Main | For him, Orange is Not an Orange but... »
September 09, 2005
Chapter 1: What is Language? (?!?!?)
QUESTION 1) Language... what is it? I don't believe there is any one correct answer. In fact, I'm certain of that, and think that was a large point of this chapter! Language is something that is amazingly unique to man, which makes it one of the most important factors to distinguish us from the animal kingdom. Language seems like a universal connection between all people of the world; people of the past, people all over the planet right now, and of people to come. It is simply biological that every human, no matter where they are, no matter what language they speak, no matter if they can hear or not - is able to learn any language. There are so many languages all over the world, that all change over time, yet there is not one that is superior or inferior to another. All languages can express the same thing, but in their own words, with their own rules of grammar. Language, as far as animals are concerned, is a totally different story, and perhaps not a case of language at all. Even if an animal could express hundreds of emotions and responses by physical gestures or pre-determined sounds, it is not language. There is no creativity and no variation. In human language, we do not have any limits when it comes to being able to express ourselves; we can use as many different words as we want, just in one sentence alone. Many people use language that is considered ungrammatical, everyday and without thought. Some argue that this is "incorrect" language, and push the proper form suppported by grammatical rules. ("Prescriptive grammar") Others may argue that the "ungrammatical" language is just a demonstration of humans using what they know about their language, and is not in any way wrong. Language is constantly, and always has been, changing, and there are always different dialects -but one is not superior over another. Therefore, as this one side would argue, this is "descriptive grammar", and should not be deemed wrong by another person.
QUESTION 2) Although hard to say, I think it is more probable that I learned a "new word" today instead of a "new sentence". Vocabulary can never be one hundred percent complete, and has to be learned, whereas a person can make many different sentences, never heard before, in their heads, without having to learn them.
Posted by lcisthur at September 9, 2005 01:07 AM