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September 13, 2005
Questions from Fromkin
Knowing a language is not just knowing the sounds of that language, or knowing how to combine those sounds to form words, or knowing how to combine those words to form thoughts and sentences, but it is a combination of all three. Language is an infinite form of expression that allows humans to be as creative as we want to be. The most important concept to take from the reading in Chapter One is that in language there are no limits. Language allows us to expess ourselves using both old and new sentences, as well as allows us to understand sentences that we have never heard before in our lives. When it comes to language, only so much can be taught. The rest is learnt subconsciously so that it often times feels like we can talk and communicate to others without really thinking.
Question # 7 in the Fromkin book proposes that if a wolf were able to express one thousand different emotions through the positions of his ears (instead of the mere 11 that they are actually able to express), would this be considered a language. Since there is a limit to how many expressions the wolf can make, this would not be a language. This would merely be a system of individual memorizations, but it would not allow for any creativity on the wolf's part, and therefore it would not qualify as a language. It is important to distinguish a scenario like this from actual language because it is literally what separates humans from all other animals. Our ability to understand and use a language, rather than just communicate through a series of memorized expressions, sets us apart and therefore needs to be distinguished.
2.
It is possible to learn a new word in one day because each person has a specific lexicon that does not include certain words. A word is just a sound or composition of sounds that represents a certain concept or meaning. So one could memorize a word and then attach that word to a meaning, and could say at the end of the day that they learned a new word. However, knowing a language does not mean that one can memorize a sentence. Most of the sentences a person comes across are new to them, but they are able to understand these sentences and create new sentences of their own becuase of the creative aspect of language. If the brain had to memorize every single different sentence a person hears, then that person would run out of memory and eventually start forgetting things. Forming sentences is where the creativity of language comes in, so the number of sentences that can be formed is practically infinite. You hear new sentences everyday, but you do not learn new sentences.
Posted by lcissullivan at September 13, 2005 06:10 PM
Comments
Brenna,
I agree with you completely on your first question. You are right, because we know a language and have all the necessary tools in constructing a sentence, we are able to be creative and free. That is a point that I really had never thought about, though it is quite obvious. A person who knows just a few words or a few sentences in a language, cannot be creative and cannot produce sentences that are unique to him or herself.
I liked this sentence: "So one could memorize a word and then attach that word to a meaning, and could say at the end of the day that they learned a new word". That is true. When I learn a new word, I attach it to a meaning or an experience and then I remember it. We do that subconsciously, don't we?
Great entry--Christina
Posted by: Christina at September 19, 2005 09:10 PM