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Language
Introduction
Semantics
| Humpty Dumpty
| Transparency and Accountability
| Language
as a function of gender | Language
as a function of ethnicity |
Metaphor
| Analogy
Barriers to effective
communication | Forces
of influence | Personality
Types | Language
as a function of gender | Website
Ease of Use as a function of gender| Computing
as a function of gender - Why only the developed world lacks women in
computing | Perception
| Contextual
factors | Language
as a Function of Ethnicity | Shifting
Paradigms |Media
Richness Pyramid
| Idiomatic Expressions |Colloquialism
| | Cross-cultural
communication
Brain's
auto-grammar check
Body
Language
References
Introduction A language is a particular kind of system for encoding and decoding information. Since language and languages became an object of study (logos) by the ancient grammarians, the term has had many definitions. When discussed as a general phenomenon then, "language" may imply a particular type of human thought that can be present even when communication is not the result, and this way of thinking is also sometimes treated as indistinguishable from language itself. In Western philosophy, language has long been closely associated with reason, which is also a uniquely human way of using symbols. In Ancient Greek philosophical terminology, the same word, logos, was a term for both language or speech and reason, and the philosopher Thomas Hobbes utilized the English word "speech" so that it similarly could refer to reason.
The term “language” has branched by analogy into several meanings. The most obvious manifestations are spoken languages such as English or Spoken Chinese. However, there are also written languages and other systems of visual symbols such as sign languages. In cognitive science the term is also sometimes extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using language. Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation and usage of systems of symbols, each pairing a specific sign with an intended meaning, established through social conventions.
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning, usually in language. Theterm semantics itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal inquiries, over a long period of time, most notably in the field of formal semantics. In linguistics, it is the study of interpretation of signs or symbols as used by agents or communities within particular circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds, noverbals, such as facial expressions, body language, proxemics have semantic (meaningful) content, and each has several branches of study.
In written language, such things as paragraph structure and punctuation have semantic content; in other forms of language, there is other semantic content.
The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry, including proxemics, lexicology, syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others, although semantics is a well-defined field in its own right, often with synthetic properties.
In philosophy of language, semantics and reference are related fields. Further related fields include philology, communication, and semiotics. The formal study of semantics is therefore complex.
Semantics is sometimes contrasted with syntax, the study of the symbols of a language (without reference to their meaning), and pragmatics, the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language.
Humpty Dumpty
appears in Lewis Carroll's through the Looking-Glass where he discusses semantics with Alice:
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't – till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master – that's all."
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again.
"They've a temper, some of them – particularly verbs, they're the proudest – adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs – however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!"
Now consider your average politician's use of the terms
transparency and accountability:
| If every politician in the
nation was asked to pay the country, one Dollar to pay off the
national debt, every time he or she used the terms
accountability & transparency, you can be sure that the debt
would be paid off within one generation- why is this?
Because invariably, politicians will avoid defining any sort of
metric, so they cannot be held accountable, for instance. |
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Perception
- language as a function of gender
FINE
This is the word my wife uses to end an argument when she is right and I need to
shut up.
FIVE
MINUTES
If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five
minutes if I have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before
helping around the house.
NOTHING
This is the calm before the storm. This means "something," and I
should be on my toes. Arguments that begin with 'Nothing' usually end in
"Fine".
GO
AHEAD
This is a dare, not permission I better not do it.
LOUD
SIGH
This is not actually a word, but is a nonverbal statement often misunderstood. A
"Loud Sigh" means she thinks I am no the brightest
light in the room and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here arguing
with me over "Nothing".
THAT'S
OKAY
This is one of the most dangerous statements that my wife can
make. "That's Okay" means that she wants to think long and hard before
deciding how and when I will pay for my mistake.
THANKS
She is thanking me. I should not question it or faint. Instead, I should
just say you're welcome – but no..
Communication, (2003) http://www.atwebo.com/communication.htm
Language
as a function of ethnicity
So, just because you share a
certain ethnicity with others, your message can be delivered effectively -
right? Not really. When the message is comedy, context is key, as
demonstrated by Chinese-born, bio-chemist turned comedian
Joe Wong can attest to: While Mr. Wong was invited to the Late Night
Show with David Letterman in 2009, the audience cracked up when he walk in
and said "Hi everybody...So, I am Irish." While Mr. Wong's humor
makes an American audience laugh, in China, where he grew up, people do not not
get it.
The
brain's auto-correcting function
The human brain is often arrogant
and does not wish to communicate with other parts of the human being, such as consciousness.
For instance, after you have looked at a complex problem and feel like you have
a solution to it, or say you just thought of a great idea, but in each case, you
forget to write it down, when you are ready to take the next step, you may have
found that you either forgot what the great idea was, or the solution you
thought was great, once you write it down, seems flawed. In bothe case,
the brain may have been saying: "I have it - no need to do anything
else."
Then there is the auto-correcting
function. Say you just wrote a very important letter, then try to proof
it, and find no errors - but the letter did have a number of errors, after
all. What happened? Your brain simply "auto-corrected" the
error, and you concluded everything was fine. Take for instance the
following paragraph that has multiple spelling errors on purpose. Chance
are that your brain will still interpret the message:
Read
the paragraph below and paraphrase the content in one sentence.
Determine implications for future assignments.
Accdrnig
to a rscheearch at the Aetwob Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr
the ltteers in
a
wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer
be at the rghit pclae. The rset
can be a total mses and you can sitll
raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mind deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Deos tihs mkae
snese?
An this is an example of he
brain's auto-correcting function
References
.
Otto Neurath (Editor), Rudolf Carnap (Editor), Charles F. W. Morris (Editor) (1955). International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Cruise, Alan. Meaning and Language: An introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics, chapter one, Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics, 2004; Kearns, Kate. Semantics, Palgrave MacMillan 2000; Cruise, D.A. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge, 1986.
Kitcher and Salmon (1989). Scientific Explanation. Mineapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bréal, Michel (1897). Essai de sémantique : science des significations. Paris: Hachette. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k50474n.
Barsalou, L. (1999). Perceptual Symbol Systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Ronald W. Langacker (1999). Grammar and Conceptualization. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyer. ISBN 3110166038.
Jaroslav Peregrin (2003). Meaning: The Dynamic Turn. Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface. London: Elsevier.
Gärdenfors, Peter (2000). Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought. MIT Press/Bradford Books. ISBN 9780585228372. http://www.lucs.lu.se/people/Peter.Gardenfors/Abstracts/conceptualspaces.html.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1916). The Course of General Linguistics (Cours de linguistique générale).
Bimal Krishna Matilal (1990). The word and the world: India's contribution to the study of language. Oxford. The Nyaya and Mimamsa schools in Indian vyakarana tradition conducted a centuries-long debate on whether sentence meaning arises through composition on word meanings, which are primary; or whether word meanings are obtained through analysis of sentences where they appear. (Chapter 8).
Lakoff, George; Johnson, Mark (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Chapter 1.. New York: Basic Books.. OCLC 93961754.
Mitchell TM, Shinkareva S, Carlson A, Chang K, Malave V, Mason R, Just M. date=2008-05-08 (2008). "Predicting Human Brain Activity Associated with the Meanings of Nouns". “Science” 320: 1191–1195. doi:10.1126/science.1152876. PMID 18511683.
Nielson, Hanne Riis; Nielson, Flemming (1995), Semantics with Applications, A Formal Introduction (1st ed.), Chicester, England: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-92980-8 .
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