December 14, 2005

Final Evaluative Post

Even though I am being redundant, I am going to have to say the most significant assignment/activity I did for the class was my final project and seeing others' final projects as well. I was completely blown away by the diversity of them--every single one was completely different in format and presentation and many new statements were made and perspectives formed on the eternally broad concept of identity. Though in the beginning of the school year I was not so enthusiastic about both classes, I did end up liking both. Maybe because in the beginning the transitional phase from high school/"old life" to college was hard on me and I had trouble focusing myself on my academics. But as I learned more about linguistics and visual culture as well as formed relationships and "built a community" (I'll use the corny cliché for lack of better terms now), I enjoyed the classes. I feel smarter from both Talk to Me and Zooming In!! I can think about language and visual images on a deeper level and I find myself always thinking and applying these darn analytical techniques and knowledge wherever I am! It's kind of a curse...

For the future, I am going to continue using this "curse" and viewing language and images more of in a linguist's perspective and seeing images not only at the face value level. I don't know if maybe these classes will influence future career paths I would like to pursue, but I do know that I'd like to take more communications classes and explore the possiblities of my Mac. Talk to Me, I know, will help me with pursuing languages because now I have both the scientific perspective and the cultural awareness of language.

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2005

Gramatarian's criticism

I think a harsh gramatarian would be mostly concerned with some of the informalities occuring in the posts, as well as maybe minor spelling mistakes. For example, am I spelling "occuring" right or is "occurring"? Considering I am not feeling motivated to check some of my words reflects in my posts and also in others. Many colliquial expressions, or expressions mostly used by the young population, are used as well, such as the phrase "he goes on to say". I noticed this is used quite often, and I don't have a problem with it but perhaps a gramatarian would because of its informal quality. In many of the posts we write as we speak using the words "like" and "sort of", sometimes in place for the words "similar" and "resembling" and sometimes to express an example or doubt or uncertainty. I don't think a harsh gramatarian would be down with that just like he wouldn't be down with me using the expression "down with that", probably because it is considered "uncultured" and "unintelligent."

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:41 PM | Comments (1)

Answer to one of Ariel's questions

Ariel's question: Isn't there a general American, and a general British dialect that speak for the majority of the citizens?

I believe there is a general dialect (or would it be accent...?) that others from a different country hear and that they cannot always detect the specific dialect within American or British English. There are certain phonetic qualities a language has that distinguishes it from another and these general similiarties are what make up the French language, the German, Italian, American, British, etc., etc. We are just hypersensitive to the differences between dialects within languages.

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:27 PM | Comments (0)

James Baldwin article

I feel I understand for the most part what James Baldwin is trying to convey and it ties in with all of the other readings as well. Basically, what I understand is that language is the key connector between people and when that language is lost or taken away so is the connection. Baldwin believes a defining characteristic of African-Americans is their language and if this language is lost they would be "in limbo", not black but never white.

Baldwin speaks of the differences in dialect that evolve in different countries, he uses Francophone countries as an example, and that someone from Senegal would have trouble conversing with someone from Paris even though French is the language of both countries. This is interesting because I recently met someone from Senegal and when he spoke to me in French I could barely understand what he was saying because his French was so different sounding than what I am used to hearing in the classroom. The same could be said of the differences between Dutch and Afrikaans. Afrikaans stems from Dutch but is totally different language in that the circumstances under which is was formed are different than Dutch. Now, I am not sure exactly what the circumstances are but my hypothesizing is the Dutch spoken in South Africa was affected by the native populations around it and new words had to have been formed for things that existed in South Africa but not in the Netherlands.

Baldwin talks of language forming from necessity and the need to convey ideas through a language the whites could not understand. He says it also has relevance to himself for communcating with other African-Americans in the presence of white people so the white people cannot understand them. However, I think this was more of a necessity when the article was written (1979) and maybe not so much now because there is less segregation and racism today. I think it is more culturally significant today than ever because it is something African-Americans have that white people will never acquire. They can try and try to "act black" or "speak black" but usually they are labelled as posers. Black english is something white people can't touch.

I found it interesting that the certain words and phrases, like jazz and Beat Generation, came from black english and that their meanings completely changed once the white population began to use them. I suppose by mentioning this Baldwin is illustrating how whites manipulated blacks and censored their culture and ultimately made it thier own. I mean I didn't know jazz was actually an African-American word so I suppose this illustrates the white supremacy occuring then and when the article was written.

Questions: What does Baldwin mean by "a morality that we know to be a lie"?

Is Baldwin implying white people are narcissitic with his smash the mirror metaphor?

Is this article at all irrelevant today because it was written in 1979?

How do languages outwit death?

Posted by lcisfreya at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2005

Passage Response

I think language is key in staying connected to a person's root culture because it is the common ground everyone in a certain culture have. If one lost their language then they lose connection with their native culture and a part of their identity. The passage speaks to me more so in the experience of someone else I know as opposed to personal experience.

My mother came to the United States from the Netherlands with my father maybe 25 or 30 years ago. I am sure she has some grasp of English in order to communicate with my dad because I know his Dutch is nothing to brag about (my sister and I snicker whenever he attempts to impress my mom with his Dutch). However, it must have been incredibly hard for her to live in a country without speaking her native language and even more so considering many Americans do not know any other second language that she knows, like German or French. She was forced, though willingly because she chose to move here, to become fluent in English for a means of survival.

However, I have never considered my mother's struggle in the terms Joshua Fishman uses. I know that right now living in France or the Netherlands and speaking French or Dutch all day long would give me a headache. I would become so stressed out from trying to communicate ideas and thoughts I might not know how to articulate in French/Dutch but do know how in English. My mother probably felt very vulnerable and insecure when she moved here because it was not her native language and language, to me, is the most significant or apparent manifestation of cultural differences. It can both alienate someone who is not a native speaker and embrace if they are. I know my mother felt alienated, and still does though she is fluent in English now, because she had no one to connect with culturally and linguistically.

Even now my mom gets very upset and sad from time to time when she misses Holland or my sister and I gently tease her about the pronunciation of her words. She takes offense because it is a sign she does not completely fit into this country and it makes her miss Holland where she does have a common ground with everyone--language. She becomes lonesome because she cannot do what feels most natural to her and that is communicate with people in her native language and who are part of her native culture. Following upon this, I think the fact that both my sister and I can heighten this frustration and loneliness when we cannot or do not speak with her in Dutch. I hope she doesn't feel she went wrong somewhere when my sister and I "lost" our fluency in Dutch but I feel that I went wrong in pushing Dutch away and thus pushing some of my culture away. I regret it though it is only further conviction for me to re-learn Dutch and connect with my mom so she feels better connected within the U.S.

Posted by lcisfreya at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

No Kinda Sense - Chapter 3 Comments + Questions

Comments -I think it is interesting how Delpit considers "standard English" a dialect; I had never considered it in this light before. It is perceived as "the" language, not a dialect.

-I disagree with Delpit's statement "Teachers seldom know much about the children's lives and communities outside of the classroom..." I think there are many teachers who are genuinely concerned with a student's cultural and family background.

-It was really nice to see the Oakland Standard English Proficiency Project had a positive impact on at least one person--the white school teacher.

-I didn't know ethnomathematics even existed; very fascinating combining anthropology and math!

-I realized slavery is the main focus of African-American history taught in school, not their intellectual achievemnets and contributions. It's true!

Questions -Would/Do African-American teachers correct their students Ebonics into "Standard English" as well?

-Why wouldn't the black community want to embrace, or see through their pride for, the Oakland Standard English Proficiency Project if it meant a better understanding of their culture from the white schoolteachers?

-"Afterall, isn't school about what kids need to know, not what interests them?" Is Delpit's main point to disseminate this idea with the following examples of teaching the chemistry of hair products and history of braiding or does she really mean this question? I cannot detect sarcasm or sincereity.

-Is Delpit's final prophecy of reconnecting African-American children with their brilliance (last page) beginning to take root in America?

-Does Delpit hope African-American children will acquire "standard English" for a means of survival or just for the sake of intellectualism and knowing another dialect?

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:05 PM | Comments (913)

Some Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts; Chapter 5 Comments + Questions

Comments -I know I make judgements about people after hearing the way they speak, though now after these readings and this course I believe my judgements will be more carefully thought over now because no language or dialect is more or less superior than another.

-I found it amusing that the 14 year-old girl contradicts herself by speaking nearly exactly as the recording she thinks to be ungrammatical.

-I was amazed at the judgement of skinhead from the kids.

-I think this piece/article is outdated in that it refers to 1970s publications and the re-integration of Welsh into British schools. This leads me to wonder whether Stubb's prediction as it becoming a future (though now present) is true.

-I am finding a lot of opinions from Stubbs are similar to Fromkin's book.

Questions -What does "pseudolinguistic" mean, more specifically the prefix "pseudo"?

-Where would the children ever get the vision of a skinhead from someone's voice?

-When was this piece/article published (curious because of citations are all in 1970's)?

-Why do we need the adjective "standard" for describing English if it seems we are always contradicting ourselves about language having the quality of being standard?

-(after reading chapter 3) Do African-Americans in Britain speak Ebonics with a British accent? (I feel a little naïve asking this question..)

Posted by lcisfreya at 09:26 PM | Comments (88)

November 28, 2005

Thesis Statement

I have chosen three poems from two different centuries and compared them on a syntactic, semantic, and phonetic level.

Posted by lcisfreya at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2005

Chapter 11

I believe that phonetic change is focused the most in this chapter because it is the most readily apparent and accessible subject for an introductory level of linguistics. Though making generalizations is dangerous, nearly everyone knows how spoken language has changed over the past centuries. I suppose it could be stated as becoming "less formal", and new words have entered our vocabulary as others have been lost. Also, language change begins with phonetic change before it changes syntactically or in the lexicon. We are constantly learning new words from other languages and integrating them or pronouncing already known words a different way. Both our spelling and sentence structuring reflect our speech which make it only natural that those two components of language should change after the phonetics. It would be impossible for language change to occur in reverse. I think that baby talk is similar to language change because a baby first learns pronouncing spoken language, then how to put words together to make meaning, and then continually adds new words to its vocabulary. The pronounciation is learned through hearing others speak and the repetition of those spoken words. Syntax is also learned through hearing others form sentences.

Posted by lcisfreya at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2005

MFA Assignment

  1.  The Museum of Fine Arts never fails to make me feel like I am being swallowed

into a completely different country. Perhaps it is the presence of the artwork that does this to me or maybe it is simply the vastness of the MFA. It really is a huge place. It is both quiet and loud. The physical quality of sound is not present but the “noise” the art makes is deafening. It is a bombardment of the senses. The MFA has a very ethereal quality as well. I walk among the ghosts of the artists because I sense and see the art that is their manifestation in the present day.

  1. The assumptions I bring with me to the museum is everything I have experienced in relation to Ansel Adams and his subject matter. I have known the name Ansel Adams for a long time and seen his work reproduced in the form of posters and know he is an esteemed photographer. However, I have not experienced it “in the flesh” nor in this mode, as grouped together, which adds power. I knew before coming to the museum Ansel Adams photographed nature so not only do I bring my knowledge of him as an artist, I also bring my own personal relationship, if you will, to nature. I’ve always appreciated the beauty and power of nature because I grew up on the Maine coast, which besides the central and northern California coast, I consider to be one of the most beautiful coastlines. Immediately I have a connection with Ansel Adam’s work because I am intrigued by the complexity of nature and its aesthetic powers.

  2. Landscape: Mount Brewer, Kings River Canyon, California 1925 This is a photograph of a lake and trees in the foreground and mountains in the background. It is very 3D (if 3D can be qualified) and it feels like I am falling in towards the mountains. I think the time of day was important to Ansel and capturing the shadows of the trees on the ground and the shadows of the clouds on the mountains. Timing was everything in this photo because the sky appears to be overcast yet the photograph is still sunny and this makes me wonder what it would like in color. Though maybe I don’t want to know because it would give me a completely different impression and perhaps it would take power away from the contrast between dark and light of the shadows. I don’t really feel Ansel uses abstraction in this piece. I think he was simply trying to represent a certain moment in time that he found to be especially moving and beautiful. Perhaps symbolism was used in that this piece could represent the dynamics of nature and that one moment is never exactly as a previous.

  3. Portrait: Eagle Dance, Tesuque Pueblo, New Mexico 1929 This photograph captures an Indian in mid-dance. A panel on the wall states Ansel was interested in preserving Indian culture and I think photographing an Indian in the act of cultural importance immortalizes the subject. Usually photographs taken of people are of their front. This one, however, is of the back and is very fitting for the title of Eagle Dance because the subject really looks like an eagle taking off or flying. Perhaps this is a symbol of him/her transcending modern material culture. The photograph is not completely centered either. It allows for the shadow to be seen as well.

  4. Abstract: Ruins near Princeton, New Jersey 1939 This photograph depicts the remains of a wall, or it could be anything like a castle or tower. I cannot tell exactly what it used to be. It is up to me to decide what the ruins used to be. If I didn’t know the location I may think it to be sugar cane plantation ruins in the Caribbean because of the trees and brush in the background; they do not look like New Jersey trees. The shape of the ruins is very abstract as well. I see different forms within them, such as the outline of a dog’s head or a crude imitation of a gun. It reminds me of looking at clouds and seeing shapes and forms come from the clouds though I know they really don’t exist except for in my mind.

  5. Coast North of Bodega Bay, California 1960 This photograph is of the California coast sprawling into the distance. It speaks to me because it reminds me of my trip to California last spring and driving up the California coast. I was just amazed at its beauty and the complete change from dingy, sprawling Los Angeles to clean, rolling mountains plunging into the ocean. I see in the photograph how I saw the miles and miles of beautiful coastline from a rest stop I stopped at near Big Sur. However, my memory is in color. Seeing the same view in black and white now is interesting because it adds the quality of age, as in nature is timeless. Not only do I realize this through the black and white aspect but also because of its similarity to my memory. The view I had in California in 2005 is virtually identical to the one Ansel had in 1960. The beauty of the coast remains the same as human life around it changes yet obviously both Ansel and I have similar appreciation for this beauty.

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:12 PM | Comments (3)

November 13, 2005

Social Group influence

I do believe social group is a very important distincter of dialects. In my previous post I mentioned I don't have the common Maine accent of dropping my r's or saying "Maine words" and I would also say these are associated a lot of the time with being part of the lower or working class in Maine; generally the lobstermen, fishermen, hunters, etc, or being ignorant or uncultured Though I will definitely note not everyone with a Maine accent is uncultured or ignorant. It is a stereotype those without a Maine accent have.
The way I speak with different groups of people (friends, family, acquantinces, higher-up's, men I'm attracted to) varies according to who they are and my comfort level with them. Generally, I am less self-conscious of what I say or more informal with my friends and family. I am usually very careful of what I say anyway, no matter who I am talking with but this especially comes into play with people I want to impress or I need to be wary of because they have authority over me, like my boss (though, this is less now since I have been working for him for 3 years and he is an ex-hippie from California...) or rigid/old-fashioned teachers.
However, I don't believe I really switch dialects. I might hold back upon using the word "friggin'" but I don't try to change how I pronounce my words.

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)

My Dialect

Well I grew up in Maine, however, I don't believe I have the stereotypical Maine accent of dropping r's at the end of words (example, lobster becomes lobsta) nor do I say "ah bouy" except when poking fun at my fellow Mainer's. However, I have been told I have a Canadian accent, which I don't really understand. I mean, this could possibly be attributed to my mother being Dutch?? Though, it doesn't seem likely I would acquire a Canadian accent from a Dutch person. On the contrary, I refuse to pronounce Dutch words in English. Amsterdam is Um-ster-dum, if shown in English phoenetics. I listened to the person from Caribou, Maine (which is waaay up north, I live on the coast) and I detected a hint of how people pronounce words in states like Michigan or Wisconsin, you know, with the funny 'o' (you knooooow). However, such words like 'wicked' and 'friggin' have entered my vocabulary and those are distinctly Maine/New England. I also use the words 'suppose' and 'perhaps' often and never really noticed until one of friends began to tease me about it. He also exaggerates it, showing I say it like "I suppoooose", with a long 'o', which is interesting because he's from France and none of my English speaking friends have ever noticed how I extend my 'o'.

Posted by lcisfreya at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2005

Mid-Semester Review

I liked the freeness in discussion we had during the LCIS. It was nice to reflect upon what we were reading or watching. It is a very innovative approach, at least for me, to do activities like visiting the MFA where the classroom is put into context. I really enjoyed that aspect. I would say my favorite assignment(s) we had were the comic assignments, especially reading Persepolis. I had never really given any thought to comics as being a form of literature until this year. I now look at comics in a completely different perspective. I also like getting feedback on my writing and having my papers written all over so the next time I may write better. I think the biggest hinderance for me was the amount of work to do in the amount of time given; sometimes I felt like I was rushing to complete an assignment or blog just for the sake of completing it because it was due and not liking what was assigned.

Posted by lcisfreya at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2005

"Slam" poem

So there I was,

In happy oblivion

Exhilirated by prospect

Enthralled by the years of dreaming

Slam! The day finally came

Any pre-conceived notions

of happiness and bliss

Quckly evaporated into the hot, city air

Everything was thrown helter-skelter

My routine, my identity, my known

No longer was I in a comfort zone

I was forced to adjust by my own act of free will

Who are these people?

Who am I to them?

Is my identity from before relevant to now?

Who am I to myself

All these questions,

continue to filter through my mind

I have self-doubts I never had last year...

or perhaps I did

Isn't college a time of self-discovery?

Perhaps I am too naïve

Perhaps I have to be slammed from time to time

in order to make these so called "self-discoveries"...

*Ahhh, I can't format this the way I want it!!!!!

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:41 PM | Comments (3)

An Interesting Conversation post Nanette's class

I had a very interesting conversatino with Nanette (Savides) today walking back to my dorm after class. We spoke about the difference between Afrikaans, a form of Dutch in South Africa, and "normal" Dutch. It was interesting for me to learn that Nanette is fluent in Afrikaans and that it's not just a dialect of Dutch but a real language. Apparently, the two are similar except in pronounciation, and I would imagine words exist in Afrikaans that do not in Dutch. We compared how "good morning" is said in Afrikaans as opposed to Dutch (that is if my Dutch was correctly pronounced) and I do notice the difference in how the words are said. It really brings about an urgency in me to re-acquaint myself with Dutch.

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2005

Alice Waters, Roctown Apple Orchard, New Jersey photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Studium: A black and white photograph of a woman, Alice Waters, dressed all in black, sitting at a solid wood table in an orchard. There is a glass of wine sitting on the table. The woman is slouched back into her chair with her left arm propped up on the chair while her right rests on the table. She is not looking into the camera but rather to a point in the bottom lefthand corner of the picture. She is sitting specifically underneath an apple tree that is in full bloom. Besides this tree, the other trees in the background are blurred and out of focus. The clothes Alice Waters is wearing are simple and she wears a black old-fashioned looking hat.

Punctum: The woman looks to me to be very non-chalant and relaxed. She is enjoying beautiful spring evening. I say evening because usually people do not have a glass of wine in the morning. Alice is a woman confident with the way life is going for her and she is self-assured and self-satisfied. An amused and knowing smile is upon her face and this further illustrates her "womanly" confidence. The glass of wine is a sort of toast to her accomplishments. In this photograph, she reminds me very much of my friend Clare, or how she will be when she is older, because she is a romantic at heart and enjoys doing these sort of idealized and romanticized activities.

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:47 PM | Comments (1)

October 24, 2005

Eliza

Here is a sample of the conversation I had with Eliza:

She was not very fun to talk to and will not talk about herself. Who honestly says "That is quite interesting" to "tell me something nice"??? It is completely irrelevent! And she answers questions with questions, which indicates she does not have any personality like a human being does. Basically her purpose is for people to continue talking about themselves and she throws in the "That's interesting" or "Tell me more". She doens't have intelligence because her remarks do not reveal a personality or a thought process.

Eliza reminds me very much of Smarter Child on AOL Instant Messanger. I assume they are the same type of program. I remember how when I first discovered Smarter Child I was very excited and thought it was pretty cool to talk to a "robot." My sister and I spent a lot of time thinking up weird and obscene things to say to it. Eventually, if I said too many obscenities it would refuse to talk to me unless I apologized. There must have been a certain number of obsecenties or insults written into the program that once surpassed an apology would have to be sad. Smarter Child was very frustrating too because if he/it didn't understand a statement or question you said, he/it would respond with your statement in question form or repeat your question. This demonstrates Smarter Child, like Eliza, is truly dumb though it has the illusion of human qualities.

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:34 AM | Comments (1)

October 21, 2005

Persepolis Review

I think it is interesting how the opinions in the review are really Jennifer Camper's yet they are expressed as if they are other people's. She shows how the different people (genders, religions) perceive it but all the views illustrated are really hers. I also think it's cool she gives a little bit of background on the novel; that Marjane Satrapi worked with French cartoonists and the ponderations of the characters on whether Marjane uses a pen or a brush. Camper puts the review in context of conversation. The characters of the review discuss aspects of the book "for" Camper. I really don't think a straight up, conventional book review would have been appropriate for Persepolis 2 because Persepolis is certainly not a conventional book. It would seem flat and not have given Marjane Satrapi as much justice as a review written in the same format as her book. Of course I say this after I have read the review already but I know if I was given the two to compare, a review in comics style is much more appropriate for Persepolis than a written review.

Posted by lcisfreya at 01:04 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2005

Gestures

Yesterday, my art history class was at the Isabella Stewert Gardner Museum. Before we began to walk around the museum, my professor Bridget Lynch gave us some background information on the museum and on Romanesque art. Now, she is a very enthusiastic lecturer and the pitch of her voice varies greatly and she gestulates quite wildly. I did notice her gestures were more exagerrated the higher the pitch of her voice. Professor Lynch is a pacer as well. Her steps and her gestures would become quicker when she emphasized a word. Most of her gestures fell into the categories of beats and deictics. For example, when she said the word 'east' she moved her hand in the right direction. Or to indicate in the past (as in history) she would make a movement of waving her hand in the air in front of her to show distance. That falls into the metaphorics. I noticed when she got really excited, she gestured wildly with both arms to emphasize her words. It was a little bit difficult to concentrate on what she was saying while trying to analyze her gestures but I realized her gestures make her lectures a lot more interesting than if she were speaking in a monotone and her arms flat at her sides.

Posted by lcisfreya at 09:12 PM | Comments (1)

October 03, 2005

Seeing Essay

“I couldn’t unpeach the peaches.” Humans are doomed to make meaning of what we see and once we make meaning it cannot be erased. It is irreversible. After reading the accounts of blind people gaining sight, Annie Dillard forces herself to see as they do, in color patches and flat shapes. However, she is deluding herself because she knows the meanings of the color patches and shapes. She knows through experience those color patches are not just patches existing without a role or an explanation. By trying to see in color patches Dillard is denying the existence of her knowledge. Knowledge of an object through sight cannot be erased thus the color patches Dillard sees will always be peaches. Dillard laments the loss of ability to see objects without meaning. “…that evenings he saw the angel who rolls away the light before the darkness, and mornings the angel who rolls away the darkness before the light...Later on you don’t see these things anymore.” Why do sunrises and sunsets have to be restricted by their names and meanings and not merely appreciated for their beauty? Dillard wishes to “unravel the world from reason.” Perhaps she misses her childhood and the innocence and simplicity of a child’s life. After all, she did begin Seeing with a memory of when she was six or seven years old and many of her experiences with seeing in nature connote the sense of regaining wonder for the beauty of nature. Seeing is not a voluntary action. I cannot choose whether I want to understand what I am seeing or whether on that particular day or moment I would rather not know I am looking at my cell phone or a pen or pencil. ‘Oh, I’m sorry; I don’t really feel like seeing today. Try again another time, please.’ This is a statement I have never considered saying to another person. It is an incredibly bazaar and unfathomable concept to consider turning the ability to see on or off. I use the term seeing, which is a physical action, but I am implying understanding, a mental action, must be accompanied by it. The two go hand in hand because, as humans, both Dillard and I seek understanding. It does not suffice to leave the world as color patches without meaning.

-just to note, it is supposed to be broken up into paragraphs but the site won't let me do it

Posted by lcisfreya at 04:45 PM | Comments (2)

October 02, 2005

Chapter 3 Morphology Question

• The advantage to having morphological modifications to words is someone who knows the meanings of bound morphemes in a language can learn a new word in that language and then attach prefixes or suffixes to the word to learn more words simply by knowing the bound morphemes. This is easier than learning individual words for each meaning a bound morpheme has. For example, if a student were learning English and they knew the meanings of the prefix “un” to be the opposite and the suffix “ness” to make an adjective a noun and learned the meaning of the adjective “desirable” they would know the meanings of “undesirable”, “desirableness”, and “undesirableness” merely through attaching the prefixes and suffixes to “desirable.” Making grammatical connections through bound morphemes is often easier to memorize than learning separate words for the opposite of “desirable”, the noun of “desirable”, and the noun of the opposite of “desirable.” As for flexibility, it seems in the English language bound morphemes are constantly added to content words whether it is true to the rules of prescriptive grammar or not.

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2005

Alfred Leslie painting

Leslie is using both metaphor and metonymy. The shoes represent their owners (metonymy) who have left reality for the world the television set represents. The television set is a metaphor to show the various ways humans escape their mundane and dark lives, hence the simple everyday objects like the chair, phone, and plate and the surrounding darkness in the scene. The owners took off their shoes to go for a walk on the moonlit beach in the TV, a convential symbol of romanticism and dreaming. Leslie is showing humans need to escape sometimes, though it is rather ironic there is nature scene in the television rather than an artificial world. Alfred Leslie is also demonstrating humans tend to confuse what is artificial with what is natural and real.

Posted by lcisfreya at 01:03 PM | Comments (1)

September 28, 2005

Mimesis vs. Social Construction

If we represented the material world simply through mirroring it, mimesis, then nothing in this world would have any meaning because we would not be adhering our cultural identities to the world. Art can be viewed as only the subject it is depicting but generally it is not because as the viewer we perceive it with knowledge and experience from our societies and cultures and we also try to view it as the artist wants us to view it and to see the deeper meaning behind the canvas or stone. Our cultures determine how we view the material world as social constructionism argues. This post brings to mind the art class I am currently taking, Museum Art. In the second chapter of my textbook, there is the painting The Portrait of Giovanni, Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami. The Arnolfini Marriage by the Dutch artist Jan van Eyck from 1434. This painting depicts a man and a woman standing very prim and proper in a richly adorned bedroom, hands outreached and barely touching, and there is a small dog on the floor between them. Now if I were looking at this painting from a mimesis standpoint, I would see it literally: as a man and a woman about to be married or already married. However, the book explains the cultural significance of the painting and that the painting was not merely created to show a married couple. For example, the groom has his shoes removed which, according to the book, is a reference to God's commandment to Moses to take off his shoes when standing on holy ground and the dog is associated with faithfulness and marital fidelity. I found it particularily interesting that in Arabic culture dogs are traditionally viewed as dirty and degrading which affirms we view the world through social constructionalist concepts rather than mimesis. To me, mimesis sounds entirely too objective. We use our past experiences and culture to formulate judgements everyday on people, places, objects. We put meaning to everything we see from our social and cultural backgrounds.

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2005

Genie

I find it interesting that Genie missing the critical period for language formation not only prevented her from learning language when she was older but also it also made her seem retarded. If I had happened to run into Genie randomly I would be under the assumption she is retarded rather than merely a lack of language and human experiences. Her behavior and intelligence is similar to that of retarded children. I believe also an aspect of Genie's life that may have been overlooked a little bit in the movie was the human experiences she, well, did not experience. Everything we take for granted for experiencing in our childhood Genie did not experience. Birthday parties, Sesame Street, kindergarden, coloring books, making friends, losing friends, playing games, homework, playing dress-up, first crush, first kiss, etc. All of these and more make up who we are today because humans experience and then change and experience and then change; it is a cycle. Genie did not have that oppurtunity and perhaps the critical period was also the period for her to experience everything children with normal lives are supposed to experience to function properly in society. It is impossible to reverse because as our mind and personality grow so does our body; they are supposed to be in sync. Genie's body grew (though obviously not as it should either due to malnutrition and abuse) but she as a person did not because she did not interact and experience with other humans.

Posted by lcisfreya at 05:54 PM | Comments (1)

September 25, 2005

Brain and Language Question #3

Someone with left brain damage would have difficulty in reading Kana, the phonetic language, because the left brain is typically associated with language, grammar, rhythimic perception, and mathematical thinking. Kana represents the sounds and syllables of the language which therefore can be processed better by the left side of the brain. Kanji is an ideographic language where the symbols depict the action or noun in a way that does not represent how the words are pronounced. The right brain does visual tasks such as recognizing faces and spatial orientation and someone with right brain damage would find it difficult to read Kanji because it is a language composed of visuals.

Posted by lcisfreya at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Seeing by Annie Dillard

I have already read this passage once before in sophomore year of high school. Well, more specifically, attempted to read this passage because I don't believe I ever got through it. This time around, however, I did manage to get through it and I did like some parts! I feel that Annie Dillard can find words to describe the most minute and literally indescribable facets of nature and life, such as the color patches. A few parts I could relate and even got excited about, and others I found to be tedious and irritating. For example, I found her description of seeing the color patches after reading the book to be unbelievable and overdramatic. On the other hand, she makes up for it with the next sentences explaining she cannot undo her knowledge of the meaning of the forms she sees and her inability to "unpeach the peaches", which I thought was a great expression. She lost me on the very top two paragraphs of page 103 and how she can "see truly" when she blurs her eyes and looks at the brim of her hat. I just found the paragraph to be too wordy. I could appreciate it in a poem but too much is too much. However, there was one part I enjoyed and brought back memories for me and that is when she is describing how she is always on the lookout for antlion traps and monarch pupae and all things minutiae. It reminded me of how when I was younger I loved to go in my field and look for monarch butterfly catepillars and then house them with some milkweed in a small mesh bug "house" through the stages of eating, chrysalis, and hatching, then setting them free. It was always so exciting. Now, however, I can't find the catepillars anymore, though I am always on the lookout like Annie Dillard is. So I suppose this passage wasn't as tedious as the first time through, and yes, I did enjoy most of it.

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September 18, 2005

My sweet visual illusion

My search for a visual illusion took me all of 3 seconds, thanks to a high speed internet connection, Google Images, and immediately seeing a thumbnail that caught my eye. When I first glanced at the thumbnail of this picture after I Googled "visual illusion" it looked to me like a picture of an old, Albert Einstein-esque man with a crazy beard and wild hair. After I clicked to see the full size image, though, all I could think was whoa, there is a lot going on in this picture. I love the wildness about it. The background of leering, snarling beasts coupled with the flaming windmill as the man's hair envokes in me a sense savagery and inhumanity. Yet...there is a look of sadness in the eyes of the large man and despair upon the faces in the path. Though through all the cruelty and sorrow, I can see the smaller man on the horse has diginity. His face is upturned with an expression of defiance and his posture and he holds his jousting lance with pride, not with fatigue or dejection. I really love the barely noticeable girl in the lefthand corner because it adds a touch of tenderness and feminity to an image primarily of violence and anger. I am definitely bookmarking this site and putting it as my background.

http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/toddsvballpage/Cognitive/illusion_4.JPG

-Freya

Posted by lcisfreya at 09:52 PM | Comments (1)

Questions

What and what is not language. Why make a distinction?

Language is an organized set of sounds (or signs as in ASL) that convey emotions and thoughts directly from the brain and when produced can be understood by another human (or animal). Language has to be universalized within a group of people so as to be understood by everyone within that group. What is not language is emitting sounds or words not known or understood by the speaker, such as the book references talking parrots. Animals may have a set of sounds they use for communicating basic emotions and ideas of anger, fear, territory and food but it is very limited and they do not create new sounds for more complex emotions.

You might say that you learned a new word today, but not “I learned a new sentence today.” Why? /Equally probable?

I think this question could really go either way. I know that if I am learning a new language, I tend to learn in both phrases or sentences and words. One of the very first pieces of French I learned was “Je m’appelle Freya” and was then told in English this meant “I am called Freya.” From there I could deduce ‘je’ is I and ‘m’appelle’ translates to ‘am called.’ I did not first learn the meanings of each separate word. A fair amount of my French lessons were taught in this fashion. Learn phrase/sentence; learn meaning of sentence; learn meaning of words. However, on the same note I was also taught the meaning of individual nouns, verbs, and adjectives in addition to whole sentences. Learning a foreign language is a mixture of learning new words and learning new sentences. Though I believe this to be true for foreign languages, I don’t believe it to be true for learning in my primary language, English. I already have a very extensive knowledge of English and therefore learning a new sentence is improbable. Generally when we learn a new word in our native language it is a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. We do not learn pronouns or prepositions because there is a very small amount of them and they have been installed in our brains for a very long time. Accordingly, a sentence must have either a pronoun or noun and prepositions for it to make sense to us. For example; if I read the sentence “He is a cuckold.” in English I would indefinitely understand the words ‘he’, ‘is’, and ‘a’ because they are simple words I have known all my life though I might not know the meaning of ‘cuckold’ because it is a rather obsolete and unused word used in everyday conversation. Therefore I would not have learned a new sentence but a new word, “cuckold.”

Posted by lcisfreya at 03:18 PM | Comments (4)

September 13, 2005

Ode to my Watch

I wear my watch everyday. It is both functional, and well, used to be attractive but everyday wear does take its toll. The once clean purple leather band is now tinged with a brownish color though the plastic buckle is still clear. The leather feels smooth and supple and will bend in any direction I wish it to though I know it prefers to follow the shape of my wrist. The outer edges have a funny bluish tint. From where this comes I do not know. There was once a small pink ribbon folded and attached to the band near the face but it is no longer there. It ripped off as I was putting my backpack at the end of an English class my junior year. The two pinprick holes are still visible though. I smell the band. J’adore Dior not an earthy leather smell. The face of the watch is remarkably near scratch free though a small crack in the left lower side reveals it has taken as much of a beating as the band. Try falling out of my car before cross-country practice one year ago. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. The sound is rhythmic and gentle. The tiny pink second hand is stark against the silver background. The small pink date box where a ‘6’ should be is off by two days. It says ‘9’ but should say ‘11’. I don’t care. I never use it anyway. Tiny metallic letters underneath the ‘12’ read SWATCH. I gaze at my watch more. A bit of the purple has peeled away from the leather on the small strap that secures the opposite end in place while I am wearing it. The stitching along the sides look like tiny railway tracks and the holes in the middle remind me of Frosty the Snowman’s buttons. The very top hole is the most stretched out because that is where I wear my watch every day. I have tiny wrists. If I turn the watch over I can watch through the clear plastic the tiny gold gears turning away. They look like miniscule wagon wheels. I can tell which gear is the second hand because it is the largest and moving the fastest. There is a smaller wagon wheel behind it that at first I though was stationary but upon pressing my nose to the clear plastic I could see was moving ever so slightly in the opposite direction of the larger wheel. I cannot tell whether the even smaller gear is moving at all. I assume it is for the hour hand. When I move my head to angle the light I see tiny letters engraved upon the plastic. Swiss made. A bubble of pride rises in me. Swatch watches are all I’ve ever known and this will not be my last. Swatch watches aren’t just watches. They’re art.

Posted by lcisfreya at 10:31 PM | Comments (2)

My Culture

I have lived in Georgetown, Maine my entire life. I have lived in the same house my entire life. If anyone knows anything about rural Maine, particularily the small fishing communties such that I live in, they could label me as a "townie", or a hick, or a country mouse. In some respects I am those. Being here in Boston has made me realize I love Georgetown and I do like to do semi-hickish things like going mackarel fishing with my dad and I miss the quietness of the woods. However, I have not spent all my time in Georgetown. My mother is from the Netherlands and my dad is in the merchant marines. Much of their culture has formed my culture. I have spent a lot of time in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe and some of my tastes may be considered Dutch such as my affinity for Dutch cheese (I LOVE Dutch cheese) and chocolates. Part of this culture is also the priority that family takes in my house. We always eat dinner together if everyone is home and it is always a home cooked meal. From a very early age my mother stressed in me the importance of manners and to ask in Dutch 'May I be excused from the table' and don't begin eating until everyone has sat down or wait until everyone has finished before leaving the table but my American culture, accrued from years of cafeteria eating and television, has rebelled quite often and I have found myself in shouting matches with my mother over discrepancies in manners. A clash of cultures: Old world Europe versus Adolescent America.

Posted by lcisfreya at 09:45 PM | Comments (2)

Metaphor Story

A couple summers ago my family and I went on a boat ride and Bambi playing in the forest. I was with my mom, dad, sister and our old dachshund, Salty Dog and the Brady Bunch singing. After visiting my grandmothers, we needed to stop for gas so we went to the Boothbay Boat Yard. My dad wanted to look at the boats put on shore. I was Tom Hanks in The Terminal for a little bit. Both my sister and I were The kids in The Breakfast Club during detention by this point. We were two hummingbirds at the same feeder too. “Hey! Freya, Catrina, come here!” My dad called to us. He was Chevy Chase in European Vacation. He was standing on the dock with a camera in his hand. I groaned, knowing the clock on the time bomb was ticking away with the camera. Catrina and I reluctantly made our way back over to the dock. “Here; get in the picture with Mama,” he instructed us. “This is the war in Iraq. Why do we have to take a picture?” I Tom Brokaw-ed. “Daddyyyyy…” Catrina whined. “Just one, ‘I’ll never let go, Jack’, my dad said as he squinted into the camera. As my dad took a second picture I though I heard a distant splash. “Hey, where’s Salty?” Catrina asked, apparently having heard the splash too, “I haven’t seen Dick Cheney in the White House for a while.” “Uhh, I just heard a splash. I hope that wasn’t him,” I said nervously, but already Catrina had started jogging down the pier, gazing over the railing. “Salty fell in the water! Daddy Marion Jones and the final 10 meters!” Catrina screamed. Sure enough, our 17 year old deaf, dumb, and blind dachshund had walked the plank, which was a good five feet above the water. My dad Marion Jones and the final 10 meters past Catrina, ‘We’re going streaking through the quad!’ as he went until he was on the dock. He dove into the water in, to my Howard Dean emitting heinous scream, only his Tom Cruise playing air guitar and began to swim towards Salty who was going around in World Trade Center 9/11/01 circles underneath the pier. He grabbed Salty and swam back to the dock. First kiss and I was very relieved Salty was okay, though quite shaken like a salt shaker. Both my sister and I were quite Carrie dropping the cake in wet cement by the sight of my dad jumping into the water in his Tom Cruise playing air guitar and we laughed and teased my dad. We still to this day Teletubbies being tickled over the event though I know we could have invariably lost Salty if it had not been for timing and my dad risking his dignity to save a very big cheese of the family.

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2005

Ode to an Orange

I think to be able to write an essay this meticulous Woiwode had to have had a lot of patience and time on his hands...and a lot of oranges. I had never thought of all the different ways an orange may be eaten until I read Ode to an Orange. These days I usually just cut them up into fourths or eigths and eat them off the peel but Woiwode's reminiscing reminds me of how when I was younger my mother would always peel my fruit for me and cut them up and serve them on a small plate. My mother too used to correct my manners and make me bow to her requests of politeness. I made note of when Woiwode said "...leftover peels are set on the stove top to scent the house." because it shows the difference between the 1940's and today where we tend to throw everything away instead of finding alternate uses.

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September 07, 2005

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