are nothing compared to the ones made out of words..
I am not really sure where I am going with this post so bear with me.
I have been studying language lately both in school and in my personal life and it has begun to take ahold of my thoughts lately. I see the world in English. I experience the world in English. What do I mean? Bejaka (bay-ah-kah) is a Swedish word it has a literal translation of "affirmation of life" but its meaning is far more than a greeting it is a welcoming to all vicissitudes that life may bring and that you recognize an understanding and acceptance of people and things as they are. All of that in one word. Took a small paragraph to describe it in English. In English things are separate they have attributes properties, they are not connected. For example almost every language has a single word for smoked fish. Not two separate words that divide and describe the object. Do we divide and describe each other without ever really knowing it?
Effects on thought. I can only think about and describe the world in the words that I know. So does expanding my vocabulary expand my ability to think about the world?
And what are the effects of slang, is it a shared experience that builds culture community or is it a communicational prison that isolates the user from people outside that community?
Just starting to muse the subject...
7 comments:
It's the old, "Sticks and stones can break bones but words cause permanent damage."
Another factor, how does the young age of American English contribute to it's compartmentalization of meaning?
I think it would be really difficult to be someone learning English for the first time and trying to figure out what the heck all of our crazy slang words mean. How to explain the word "crunk" to someone just starting out in their English studies? (Better yet, try explaining it to your parents....just as difficult).
Yet in other cultures, the boundaries between proper language and common language still exist. When we learn the words of another language, we learn their literal meaning but not their street meaning.
"So does expanding my vocabulary expand my ability to think about the world?" I hope so. Keep us updated!
Slang is there in each culture and language......As face put it, what matters is knowing when to us them....
Rock - The age aspect floored me when I thought about ...does the older the compartmentalization of the language equal a greater reluctance to adapt to the future?
Face - You have anything you can recommend on the link between slavery and slang? That sounds worth exploring I had never heard that before.
Lauren - I bought a word of the day calendar:) I will keep you posted...would you mind if I threw up a link to your site? I was feeling your V-day post today:)
Anne :) This is why I can't wait to be a piece for some German show and tell. I love the outside perspective :) I miss you..
but doesn't knowing when to use them both presuppose being educated? you have to learn both to know when to use both.
Brian,
I don't know, expand on that a little bit.
Rock the more I thought about it the less it made sense. Every language makes up new words to describe new concepts the key isn't the language like in the sense that i was thinking but rather a cultures ability to adapt to change that is key.
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