Language & Linguistics
Language is fascinating. There are so many ways to approach this topic: from etymology, to how language reflects and reinforces culture, to the philosophy of language, to the neuro-cognitive aspect, and yet, it sometimes still is not enough.
“what loneliness
the solitude
of thought before language”
Language acquisition by people with sensory input issues (deaf and blind) can inform us so much about language, like how do we have knowledge of language?
Some things that are innate and natural, even if they are not being taught them
Hearing parents don't signal "this cup", just point at cup, but deaf children will sign "this cup" as we express it verbally
Blind children understand sight-related vocabulary that they don't have any experience in
So they don’t know colours, but they know things can be coloured, and the fact that colour is different from other properties—even though they don’t have any evidence of that.
Blind children aren't learning by observation, but by discerning by grammar
Grammar of language can teach us how to learn meaning of language
Grammar is the rules that build up meaning
Edward Sapir writes on the bi-directional influences between culture, language and thought.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is caricatured and misunderstood, it can actually have two manifestations:
linguistic determinism- the language we speak can affect the way we think, as demonstrated in Arrival
linguistic relativity- language can affect some of the way we think when we need to think quickly (more accurate)
Language is a tool for thought but isn't thought
We can think without language-- think of how animals understand our verbal commands
Language is a facilitator of thought but also affects
Language can influence thought, but culture can influence language
Languages reflect the culture they come from
Kenneth Pike’s theory of emicization - the process of going from alien to insider
Phonetics is the study of physical properties of sounds
"etic" is the perspective of the outsider
Phonemetics is the study of sounds meaningful to speakers
"emics" is the insider
Children are born aliens and learns language, but also culture and values
Language and culture turn people from aliens to insiders, making them part of the group
What grammar does for sentences, etymology does for language
You can understand meaning and relations
Poetic language
Sigmund Freud: Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me.
David Whythe’s Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
On defining heartbreak: Heartbreak asks us not to look for an alternative path, because there is no alternative path. It is an introduction to what we love and have loved, an inescapable and often beautiful question, something and someone that has been with us all along, asking us to be ready for the ultimate letting go.
On breaking up and grief in romantic relationships: "a tragic part of a serious relationship ending is the language you shared together being lost - all those facial expressions, jokes, noises, verbal intimacies that only the 2 of you understood, become a dead language never to be spoken again" #linguistics
"Linguistic friends tell me there is a word for the intimate language couples develop; it can be called an "ecolect" (language particular to a household); or, an "idiolect," (technically, lang. particular to an individual, but also for a very close couple.)"
"They contribute to the lifelong process of building up the language through which we understand ourselves."