How to Talk about the World

Reading response

While reading How to Talk about the World, by Peter Farb, I though that it was interesting that our brain automatically categorizes things. Because we have a limited space for obtaining knowledge it makes me wonder how large our capacity to learn is. And if their was no limit on the information we could retain how would that affect humans and our environment. Cultures generalize information differently all over the world, making exact translations from one language to another pretty much impossible. If we had a more standardized knowledge of basic information communication from one culture to the next could be much smoother. Because their is such a wide range of cultural groups around the world that is pretty much impossible. 

Muriel Smith 

Aitchison- Language

The article about language and how there are many biological clues on how we are pre-programmed to learn and deal with language and how such traits have evolved to get to our current point, was something that I found very interesting. The author went on to discuss many of our biological human aspects and how they may relate and have an influence on our ability to learn, sustain and advance something as complicated and important as language. The part that talked about how it isn't surprising if we only could speak in a few word bursts, but the fact that we can plan and change what we are about to say while we are already saying something is an aspect to our language capabilities that puzzles many researchers in the field but is undoubtedly one of the defining characteristics when it comes to our use of language as a tool of verbal communication.

-Chris L.

Farb and Lakoff

I thought it was interesting how Lakoff’s article was discussing how we all use metaphors in everyday life and they affect more than just language after I had just read about the Yokutz language that didn’t use any metaphors and all meanings are literal. After reading Lakoff stress the importance of metaphor, I wondered how the speakers of Yokutz got along with their simple, literal language. It made it hard to take Lakoff seriously since Yokutz pretty much proved his main point obsolete. Although, I think it would be hard to communicate without metaphors, because I doubt that an absolutely literal vocabulary would allow us to express all of our abstract thought. Metaphors allow us to interpret others’ thoughts internally and compare them with our experiences so that we understand their thoughts that they wouldn’t be able to express through literal vocabulary. The articles also made me wonder how someone would think without any language. I wondered if it would even be possible, or if maybe it would make it simpler since you didn’t have to worry about finding the right vocabulary for your thoughts.

Language

I was really excited to start the language unit, I thought all of the material sounded really interesting, I even ended up writing my research paper on it. I think one of the most interesting pieces of material for this section would have to be the movie we watched on languages and how they think there might be one language that all the others branch off from. That seems really interesting to me, and makes a lot of sense. People are always saying how a lot of languages steam from Latin, but I never thought about there being one central language that everything else branches off from.
It links really well with the ideas of evolution. If all humans and their language originated in one general area the language they had would have been standard throughout groups of people, until they separated and scattered throughout the world creating the other languages and dialects we hear and speak today. The movie started an interesting discussion about when a new language or dialect is formed, how much must change before it is considered a new language. It was interesting to see how the changes can start from a simple accent or a slight carelessness in the pronunciation of a word or phrase. Slang terms can also affect language a lot as well, in different areas that speak the same language they can have different meanings for the same words. Like the pants example that Professor MacCormack brought up. Overall I think the general topic of language is interesting and studying its origins and the effects on the people that speak it seems like a good way to spend a few weeks.

Demonic Males

This reading by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson struck my attention because it made me think about the power of genders. As it said, throughout history most societies would ban women from having anything to do with participating in war. The men wanted to feel as if they had the strength the women did not. This made me think that maybe it was the men who were weak and insecure with themselves. If they truly were as strong as they claimed why would they be threatened fighting amongst women? The women referred to endure being discriminated against, beaten, raped, and many other horrific things. It makes me wonder, if gender roles were switched would men be able to endure such things?

-Molly Hilken

Reading Response: Nature Via Nurture

This article covered a topic that I am very familiar with, the idea of nature vs. nurture, but the title alone made me think of a new way of thinking: not vs. but via. Many anthropologists have toyed with the idea that perhaps our cultures are not separate from our true nature, that when we go against our culture we are actually going against our nature instead of with it. This idea appeals to me because we have too many social constructs that prevent the idea of us being bestial without cultures to shape us, as even animals have culture. The famous addage "raised by wolves" no longer means that they have no culture, simply a different one if we adopt the idea that human nature requires cultural nurture. Our moral structures and systems of belief aren't necssarily unique to humans, just different from an animal culture. Wolves, for example, have a distinct and elaborate social order where there are those who are in positions of higher command, but all among the group nare important to the pack's survival. As for their beliefs, we cannot speak to them to answer that question, so it will have to remain unanswered.

how to talk about the world

How to talk about the world

I found this article about language very interesting for many reasons. One reason is that it had never occurred to me how much of an impact your culture has on your language. For instance, the categorizing of a chair in English would be with furniture while in some African speech communities they would categorize it with a spear because they are both emblems of a rulers authority. Another interesting thing that was pointed out in the article was that there are some sentences in a language that simply can’t be translated to another depending on how that language was developed in it’s culture. Which is why becoming a translator is a form of art itself.

Corbin B.