Context, Understanding and Language

While the readings this week were substantially different, both had an emphasis on context and meaning. Both addresses how understanding and language is dependent on certain concepts and contexts of people.
The first reading focused specifically on one case study involving triangles, and the conceptual idea of a triangle. It showed through experiments that while a word can mean some broad set of data - there are an infinite amount of different triangles that can be drawn - the prototypical triangle actually is very similar between different people and very specific. Meanwhile, the concept of a three sided polygon does not hold quite the same idea for people, despite meaning practically the same thing.
The second reading focused on AAVE and creoles and the arguments for and against AAVE being a dialect of English or a creole. It also explained the impacts that it has had on the exploration and development of sociolinguistics as a study and career. It then focused on the contributions of the linguistic community to the AAVE community, discussing the issues surrounding a lack of involvement of the black community in linguistics and the failure to represent the African American speech community to the best of our ability. It also focused on the applications of linguistic study in implementing acceptance of AAVE in teaching Standard English.
The first article made a lot of sense to me as I have experiences similar concepts as a Canadian living in the States. There are certain words here that mean very slightly different concepts that can change the meaning of a sentence. At home, to write a test means that a student completes a test - here, a teacher writes a test, meaning that they create the test. While only slightly different, the contextual meaning is quite different. Similarly, AAVE is a different way of saying the same things that is different from what other Americans use, but similar enough to create some understanding. However, here one is generally seen as improper by those who do not speak that way, whereas when I have had similar experiences, I generally am not seen as 'wrong,' just different.