Language

What is Language

• It is the primary way in which we gain information about the world around us

• ‘Language’ is not the same as ‘communication’

• Language has 3 key features:– It has mutually agreed rules (grammar)– It is intended – It is creative and open-ended

Try to think up a grammatically correct sentence in the English language that you think that nobody in history has ever said before

Language and communication

• Can your dog communicate with you?

• Can it use ‘language’?

• Koko the Gorilla was taught American Sign Language from birth, but do you think she was truly able to communicate with her keepers through language?

The Theories of Meaning

• There are 3 theories about what makes some words meaningful and others not meaningful:– Definition Theory– Denotation Theory– Image Theory

1. Definition Theory

• This implies that every word can be given an exact definition

• After all, that’s why we have dictionaries

• However, most definitions are vague, and of course they have to use other words to make the definition (this is the problem of infinite regress)

2. Denotation Theory

• This states that a meaningful word has to ‘stand’ for something

• What does the word ‘Mexico’ stand for?

• Even if this works for material things that you can physically perceive, what about things you can’t – like love, freedom

3. Image Theory

• It seems sensible that if the other two theories can’t be trusted, then we can say that the meaning of a word is in the ‘image’ it conjures up in the mind.

• But what is the problem with this?

• You can’t be sure that the image in one person’s mind is not the same as that in somebody else's. So how can we be sure we all have the same understanding of any word in any language?

The Montillation of Traxoline

• It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter, It is montillated in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristeriate large amounts of fevon and then bracter it into quasal traxoline. Traxoline may be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the future because of our zionter lescelidge.

By Julia Lanier

Questions1. What is traxoline?

2. Do you think a group of people reading this will all have a similar understanding of the word ‘traxoline’

3. Where is traxoline montillated?

4. How is traxoline quaselled?

5. Why is it so important to know about traxoline?

6. Does this exercise tell you anything about the nature of language itself?

The Problems of Language

• If we consider language as a means of gaining knowledge, there are 7 problems:– Vagueness– Ambiguity– Secondary meaning– Metaphor– Irony– Sarcasm– Idiom

1. Vagueness• This occurs when your understanding of a word depends on experience or

context– Hot, early, many, most, a poor student, soon

• Sometimes vague language is used deliberately (especially by politicians) to avoid committing to anything concrete:– ‘My officials are monitoring this situation very closely, and I can promise

that we shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the situation is resolved in a way that is fair to all the parties involved.’

(Willam Hughes and Jonathan Lavery, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to the Basic Skills, 5th ed. Broadview Press, 2008)

This is also commonly referred to as using ‘weasel words’ – the intention being to appear to have made a meaningful statement when there is no real meaning behind it. The phrase is attributed to Shakespeare, who included similes of weasels sucking out the contents of an egg and leaving the shell intact in As You Like it and Henry V

2. Ambiguity

• This occurs where a word or phrase can have more than one meaning

• Sometimes context allows the meaning to be inferred (not always correctly)

• Politicians may purposely use ambiguity so that audience members read their own desired meaning into a statement:– “I oppose taxes which hinder economic growth”

You may read into this that the politician is opposed to all taxes, or you may read into opposition only to selected ones. Could this sentence be re-written to avoid the ambiguity?

http://edrontheoryofknowledge.blogspot.mx/2014/06/ambiguous-language.html

3. Secondary Meaning

• This occurs when a statement has a hidden connotation behind its primary meaning (its denotation)

• Sometimes this is in the form of a euphemism (where the connotation is much less acceptable than the denotation)– Passed away– Correctional facility– Ethnic cleansing– Collateral damage– Put to sleep– Use the bathroom– Between jobs

Where a secondary meaning is inferred in order to shock rather than be polite, it is referred to as a dysphemism. e.g. ‘take a dump’ rather than ‘use the bathroom’

4. Metaphor

• A phrase in which you attempt to express the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar

• They are not literally true statements• Metaphors require context to be understood (and often a

shared culture)• We speak, write and think in metaphors all the time

because they are built into language

Dr. House: I'm a night owl, Wilson's an early bird. We're different species,”

Dr. Cuddy: Then move him into his own cage Dr. House: Who'll clean the droppings from mine?

5. Irony• A statement which has the opposite meaning of what is said or expected• If you don’t recognise irony it can lead to a lot of problems of understanding• We can catagorise it as:

– Situational irony– Verbal irony– Dramatic irony

http://edrontheoryofknowledge.blogspot.mx/2009/02/incorrect-use-of-english-language.html

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."(Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964)

It is of course ironic that 'Ironic' is an unironic song about irony. Bonus irony: 'Ironic' is widely cited as an example of how Americans don't get irony, despite the fact that Alanis Morissette is Canadian."(Jon Winokur, The Big Book of Irony. St. Martin's, 2007)

http://edrontheoryofknowledge.blogspot.mx/2014/06/irony.html

Oooo, look at me, Marge, I'm making people happy! I'm the magical man, from Happy Land, who lives in a gumdrop house on Lollypop Lane!(Homer Simpson)

from Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία meaning ” feigned ignorance"

6. Sarcasm• Sarcasm is defined as sharp, bitter or cutting remark

• It may or may not include irony

• Like irony, understanding sarcasm requires (second-order) understanding of context and interpretation of the speaker’s intention

• This means empathy is required for understanding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBztjzDr0fMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coBBfe_-uOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSy5mEcmgwU

7. Idiom• A form of expression which has a different meaning compared to its

literal meaning (it is a specific form of ‘secondary meaning’)

• If you have not learned this ‘figurative meaning’ then you will misunderstand an idiom or it would be nonsensical

• There is a cultural element to idiom

• Examples (in English) include:– “A taste of your own medicine”– “Having an axe to grind”– “Apple of my eye”– “Beating about the bush”– “Blood is thicker than water”– ”Can’t cut the mustard”– “It’s in the bag”

Lost in Translation• There are approximately 3000 languages spoken today, but

many are disappearing

• Some words are untranslatable

• Different languages may use very different grammar

• The context of a sentence may give a word a very different meaning

• A non-native speaker may be unfamiliar with idioms or not catch metaphor, irony or sarcasm, or encounter problems with accents

http://edrontheoryofknowledge.blogspot.mx/2009/02/lost-in-translation.html

Lost in Translation

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis• This is based on the idea that language determines our experience

of reality (it is also referred to as linguistic determinism)

• We think only what our language allows us to think

• If two languages are very different, then those that speak them will think very differently

Benjamin WhorfEdward Sapir

Linguistic determinism has become a very popular topic in fiction. Most notably perhaps in George Orwell’s ‘1984’

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• In a language experiment bilingual Japanese women were asked the same questions in English and Japanese when chatting with researchers. It is postulated that their answers were different, based on what language they were thinking and speaking in at the time …

• Real friends should…– “Help each other” (Japanese)– “Be very frank” (English)

• When my wishes conflict with my family’s…– “It is a time of great unhappiness” (Japanese)– “I do what I want” (English)

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• Some researchers have reported the existence of hundreds of words for different types of snow in the Inuit language

• Is it therefore reasonable to assume they perceive their surroundings much differently to an English speaker?

Criticisms of Sapir-Whorf

• Steven Pinker is a renowned linguist who claims that there is no truth to the idea that so many words for snow exist in Inuit, and in any case it doesn’t affect the way they perceive things.

• Don’t we have an equally huge vocabulary for snow in the English Language?

• He is one of many anthropologists and linguists who have tried to discredit the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Criticisms of Sapir-Whorf• It is just as possible that ‘reality creates language’ as

‘language creates reality’

• There is evidence from animals and babies that thought can exist without language. Did early humans ‘think’ before they invented language?

• People think in many different ways. Albert Einstein claimed he thought in ‘images’ and many autistic people think in ways that are very alien to others.

• Have you ever had a really good thought but then found it really difficult to put into words? Does this therefore suggest that our thoughts exist separately to language to some degree at least?

Betrand Russell on Language

• In 1905 Bertrand Russell wrote one of his most famous and influential essays ‘On Denoting’

• He began by stating that there are 2 functions of language:– Referring– Describing

referring describing

Rome

Father

Is sunny

Is going

Bertrand Russell on Language

• He continued by saying that proper names never actually refer – even though we all assume they do

• In his most famous example of this he came up with the phrase:– “The present king of France is bald”

Is this a referential sentence? Do you see anything strange about it? It is, in fact, a paradox

Bertrand Russell on Language• “The present king of France is bald”• The sentence appears to be false as there is no present

king of France• However, by declaring it false then logically “The present

king of France must have a full head of hair” – but that can’t be true either

• Logically it is valid – but it seems to be neither true nor false (is that possible?)

• Russell was a mathematician and logician – he dedicated his life to studying problems of logic like this

• His conclusion in this case was that many phrases which we assume to be referential can’t be

• From this he developed his ‘Theory of Denotation’

Bertrand Russell on Language

• Russell stated that the logically correct version of the sentence “The present king of France is bald” is:

“There exists one and only one entity which is a king of France and which is bald”

• Russell and other philosophers after him have been striving towards developing the perfect form of language which has no paradoxes