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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 18
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 18 |
Chris,
Hello. I unfortunately cannot offer any well-founded arguments. I have been studying language for only one year, and all the studying has been inside my own room. By reading some of Locke, many grammar books and books concerning language (the book 1984 adds to this a unique perspective of the delimiting of thought by the delimiting of language), and with much observation of speakers, I have concluded that language must be thought and thought must be language.
If that conclusion is naive, that is fine. Many years are left before my death; I have much time to learn and change my thoughts. As I search through the posts in this site, I notice the large amount of information that are still unknown to me. It is compelling. My one year has taken me to a great conclusion, though, I believe. Many kids my age do not think of language, and I believe that makes them less defined.
My arguments now are not very refined, too. Many books and writers disagree, and I do not know which side is more sensible. Just as now, I sometimes feel wrong for thinking that I am right. Others have more intricate theories, and present them better. Language still confuses me, but I am learning as quick as I can.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Thinking out loud - or rather on line.
Language consists mainly of words and the rules on how to use them and words are the symbolic representations of concepts or objects. Concepts and objects obviously exist whether or not there are symbols for them; in fact we don't need symbols for something unless we are going to think about or try to communicate about it. But we like to name things and so we create words for those concepts which are important to us. For example ask a skier and a non-skier how many kinds of snow they can name. Because it is easier to mentally juggle concepts, or think about things, when we have symbols for them we tend to think mainly about concepts we have words for.
Thus it becomes circular. Thinking creates language and yet language can limit thinking.
This is why learning a language can teach you so much about the culture that created it.
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270 |
"Many years are left before my death" Knock twice on wood with you say that! That's okay though, I already knocked for you. And mahogany.  Back on topic. As someone who can think fluently in two languages, as someone who can see so many points of view in life I'd call what you're presenting a gross oversimplification of the human mind. Do you really think so little of the mind, what created skyscapers, airplanes, trains, cyberworlds, that you believe that language determines so much? Many people can excel and think beyond language. Do you think Einstein thought in terms other Germans could understand? That's why people coin new words. That's why the English we spoke 1000 years ago didn't sound anything at all like the language we speak now. Growth, expansion, thinking beyond language to create language. Life is so much more than that, that it's sad to think that people can even subscribe to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
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Joined: Aug 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Language is the representation of thinking not it's source.
That is the thought that I couldn't put into language yesterday.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Amen,[]Logwood
Sorry,
spacebar
not
working
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 456
addict
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addict
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 456 |
Couldst not utilize an ASCII stand-in [e.g., Alt-255]?
"Improvise, adapt, overcome."
-USMC concept
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956 |
...or, copy a string of text and adust the words, eh, eh, eh!
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Linux box doesn't use ALT sequences. I worked around by copying and pasting a space. Now I've got a new keyboard.
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 18
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 18 |
The evolution of our language now seems to be a decay. Why should "gonna" remain in our language? It is lazy! Damn, I am not afraid of being called a stickler, gonna is utterly stupid. It changes a sentence too much:
Is he leaving tomorrow?
Is he gonna leave tomorrow?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Oh, honey, there is so much you don't know, and I admire you for trying to understand. Better scholars than I can direct you to the Victorian inkhorns et al who tried to put forth the same arguments.
To be a true pedant, you need decades of knowledge to fall back on. And then you're still gonna be obnoxious.
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