Thoughts About Language

 

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. This focuses on how the language is structured and why it's in that form. While thinking about other languages we never really think about how many things are different. Many languages have different sounds, vocabulary, structure, and meaning. Language is different in many other aspects, not just words. Some examples are grammatical gender, colors, and directions. 




While I watched the video Lera Boroditsky mentioned that in Kuuk Thaayorre the people don't use the words "left" or "right." Instead, the way they give directions is by using North, South, East, and West. These are called cardinal directions. I'm not talking about just when they are driving, they use it in their day-to-day life. Let's say that two people are having a conversation and one asks "Hey, where is my phone?" They won't say "Oh, it's on the right side of the table," because this isn't their sense of direction. The person would reply back "Oh, it's on the north side of the table." This opens up my eyes and makes me wonder how many other languages do this? 




"To have a second language is to have a second soul," said Charlemagne. I agree with this quote because when you talk more than one language you tend to express yourself differently. You can explore different parts of the world with language and even get to know the history of where it came from. You are able to connect with people in a deeper level than just knowing one language. 

TED. "How language shapes the way we think." Youtube, 2 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k&t=632s







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linguistic Intelligence

Image
    As we go on with our lives, we never stop and think to ourselves, "How am I able to understand this story?" or "How can I understand what the author was feeling?" because as we are reading we are comprehending what the author is trying to say to us without realizing it. This skill that we have is called linguistic intelligence . This means that we can understand what we read or hear and we can tell others what we feel or think through speech or written words.  This skill is one of eight multiple intelligences that were created by Howard Gardner.  Verbal Intelligence Quotient      As a young child, you are read stories and are commonly asked "How do you think the character felt?" as a way of seeing if you understood what was going on in the story. When at school, between the ages 6-16, you are tested with a test called Verbal Intelligence Quotient (Verbal IQ). This test determines how well your child can comprehend and express language , it i...
Read more