Lupyan sheds light on the complexity and ambiguity of words. Language is necessary to label, represent, and categorize objects. Lupyan argues that the lack of words affects listeners' interpretation and comprehension. And interpretations can change over time, highlighting the subjectivity of the lives we lead. In my opinion, one can never convey exactly what they are seeing or feeling through words because experience is subjective to every person. The world we see is dependent on our past and our outlook, but through language, we are able to share our thoughts and memories in the closest way possible.
Rickford focuses on the study of African American speech within sociolinguistics. Of all the different fields that fall under linguistics, I am most drawn to sociolinguistics, so this passage was especially interesting to me. In the 1990s, despite the extensive studies of AAVE, not a single US-born African American faculty member worked in a Linguistics department in America. These statistics are scary and exemplifies the overwhelming presence of racism in so many parts of our world. Rickford challenges the linguistics community to change the current state of under-representation of African Americans within linguistics. He also calls upon high schools and the administrations of universities to systemically address the negative outlook that many people associate with AAVE. Speakers of AAVE are often treated with less respect and dignity because the dialect differs from SE. I truly believe that no one should ever feel embarrassed of their speech because language is an integral part of our identity and culture.
These texts relate to our most recent PSet, in which we were asked to find the universal definition of "word." Lupyan and Rickford challenge my assumption that a universal definition even exists, and the language and world around me are becoming increasingly more subjective.
I think you're point of the impossibility of conveying exactly what someone sees or feels is super interesting! I agree that it is hard sometimes to put into words how you're feeling or what you're thinking. And even if you do find words to express yourself, it will always be subjective and biased. There is no "universal" way to describe one concept, condition, feeling, etc. You also don't know if other people will interpret those words in the same way that you meant them to be interpreted in. I think this also ties into a discussion of how misinterpretations between a speaker and a listener can occur. I agree that this subjectivity makes defining what a 'word' is, extremely difficult!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one who saw parallels to our last PSet! I had a really tough time coming up with a suitable definition for "word", and after especially the Lupyan reading I feel like I understand why a bit more. Trying to put into words a definition for a concept so flexible was a tall order indeed, as the concept "word" has significantly more constraints than the concept "triangle" does.
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