This blog is for discussion in the TOK class at Marymount International School in Rome.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Language: What is Important?
For better or worse we navigate much of our life and education through verbal language. In this unit of our class, what impressed you as new and insightful?
In my opinion the most interesting thing I learnt was the fact that simple phrases can be interpreted so differently, sentences which we take for granted, expressions, none of them can be translated. But still we think that this one word refers to one thing or concept, yet it is only our interpretation of this concept.
Talking about language and meaning, what impressed me the most was probably learning about semiotics. This is probably beacause I had never heard of it before. Anyways, i find it interesting how people study this system of signs to connect and create parallel paths with language. This system leads to the meaning of things. Like when you look up a word in a dictionary, it only leads to another word, and then another word again. This system leads to the true meaning of things. We can tie this discussion to language as a miscommunication. Renaming a problem leads to one question to another question, and really not progresing. But if we can always keep asking questions does this mean that nothing is really real?
In this chapter about language what impressed me the most is probably how words assume different meanings depending on the rules that govern their use. The fact that language also determines out thoughts and our view of the world is another important concept because there are never enough words to express what we think or what we see, still, if we use correctly the limited amount of words me know, then our "message" can be passed on rather clearly.
What really impressed me most about this chapter was the section on "language and meaning". It made me realize that most of us do not truly understand/perceive the true meaning of the almost infinite amount of words we use in the English language. Sometimes I find myself thinking about a word and spelling it out so many times that the sound of the word separates itself from it's meaning. It no longer sounds like a real word to me. If we tried doing this daily with at least one word in our vocabulary we would start comprehending the true complexities and "weirdness" of our language. Also, I really liked learning about the linguistics and philosophers that pondered on meaning and language.
In this last unit of our TOK class, what impressed me the most is probably how one word can have mean different things. Like the example given in the book with the ice cream being 'nice'. One can refer to the ice cream as being nice, as in tasty and good; but not as 'nice' as in a person being comforting and respectful. Most of us can perceive things in a different way, tone also can come into play when talking about perceiving things in a certain way. Sometimes when I drive back home and am in the car alone, I think to myself, why is a car called 'car' ? or a dog called a 'dog' ? and many other things like that. Why does it seem like we have to label everything ? Maybe it makes our life easier, who knows. One simple word could lead to five other words, and those five other words could each lead to ten other words and so on. Us humans are lucky enough to have an infinite amount of words that we can use to describe our world surrounding us, it's up to us to figure out how to use them correctly though.
what struck me the most in this chapter of the TOK class, is the language and meaning section. particularly, the problems that airse whan translating. there are various examples in the book related to translation, and i find them extremely interesting. there are things in life, like language, that one tends to take for granted, and people tend to not reallystop and think about it. but when you do, you realise that what you took for granted before seems peculiar. like the example of the "ich liebe dich", and the fact that it is not just the english "I love you", but it can be said only by certain people and in certain circumstances.
In this unit, the thing I found most interesting was how there are certain concepts that just cannot be defined by people. It is very true that oftentimes we feel, think or believe something that cannot be expressed by language. Essentially, then, a great deal goes unexpressed and remains in us. We all experience similar feelings though, so if we do mention the words "love" or "friendship" or "sadness", the other person will know what we're talking about, even if we can't express it in words. I also thought how words are lost in translation was interesting. I recall in a film I once saw, it took one person over a minute to express an idea that was cut down to a sentence in another language. Some words and phrases cannot be translated exactly. This means that a concept can be lost.
The last two classes, particularly amazed me. I was aware of how different words or sentences have different meaning, the so called homonym we learn at elementary, and that know we describe with philosophical words as the Fallacy of Ambiguity,. Yet reading the chapter on language and meaning i became conscious that it dealt with much more than this, it explained how language means something because it stands for something real. Often we are unable to represent symbols or objects with words and therefore we are left with a thorny problem that has to do with understanding of words. What people don't know is that the concepts we want to say are not wrong, but it's the language that is unable to describe them, therefore describe what we mean often ends up to be impossible.
In this chapter of "Language" the thing that impressed the most was the fact that "language gives a representation of the world." It is said that meaningful language stands for objects in the world and nothing else. In my opinion that phrase is true becasue if you think there every single word has a specific meaning, even sounds are given words (onomatopias). With words we understand the meaning of things, for example we all know the meaning word LOVE and we know this word represents affection and if is a positive thing whereas we also know that the word HATE represents something negative; so like that every single world in the world represents something.
In this unit what I learnt and found most interesting was the fact that anything we believe has an obvious when expressed through language is, in fact, not at all so and can change meaning depending on the way it is analysed. Language is in fact very subjective and depends greatly on how our minds interpret it, although we have been educated in such a way that our interpretations of language are very similar, if not identical, however, people from different cultures may interpret things a lot differently.
The part of our unit that has hit me the most so far during our TOK class, is the whole concept of the mind, and how it works. I was fascinated when we studied it, because i realized that it was something that i had never actually sat down and thought about before. I find the way how people interpret colors in a different ways just astonishing. How the world may seem what it is in our mind, but in someone else's mind it may be another story. Also, I had never gone into depth as to why an apple has the name 'apple' and not 'peach'. What difference would it make? Why do words exist? Who created them? Where did they come from? None of these questions have an answer, yet, they have many answers from different points of view.
TOK class is a completely new subject to all of us, but it has particularly struck me, especially in these last sections in which we talked about language. What I found most interesting has been to learn how even one word, said in a wrong circumstance can cause discommunciation, because of maybe, its multiple meanings. WHat i learned in fact, was that language often leads to discommunication, and so things we intent to say may be interpreted differently from the person right next to us. Also, the fact that we don't know why a chair is not a diary, and it is a chair instead, suscitates many other questions, and answers, who give light to different opinions, and points of view: this is TOK.
In the topic of "Language" that impressed me the most, as a learner in our class of TOK, was that certain words have so many different connotations to it. That words have many different meanings, and within those meanings, there are different separate meanings, thus referring back to; questions that are within questions, within other questions, this concludes that a question has no direct answer, because there will always be an infinite question, one after the other. We notice these words and situations as a routine in our daily life, we never stop and ask the question; "Why is this like this?" We don't have the mental strength to actual understand the meaning of each and everything that surrounds us in our daily life. We may want to understand the point of view that is drawn across such a given situation, but we will never find the definite answer to it. For example for someone who would be learning a new language (their first language) they would be asking themselves such questions as; "What is a chair?" and "Why is a chair called a 'chair'?" one is grown up to known such things and not to ask questions to why one thing is called one thing.
In the section on language what intrested me the most was the emphasis on how words don't have a true definition since the defintion of one word always leads to the questioning of another word. If we find a defintion in the dictionary of one word we will find a doubt on another word used to define the first word. As chloe said, words are very complex and curious, therefore language is even more complicated since it builds upon words. Since there is such a vast field of words, language is subjective. Each word we use shows characteristics on each person. Also our language derives our culture and particularities about our habitual enviromemt.
AGD: I found this chapter very interesting in TOK, all about language. I have always thought that language was essential to the human world, but I found out how many problems language makes. Out of the things we learnt the one that made me think the most was how much language is misused. How from saying certain things one understands thing that are only inferred. When someone calls and they ask “is your mother in” it means so much more. As in it means is she home so I can talk to her. Another thing I found interesting is the concept of learning words. To know the true meaning of a word you need to know other words and so on and so forth. So how does one learn the meaning of words when they don’t know any other? Chomsky made me think of many things too for example when he says “Language gives a repetition of the world. Meaningful language stands for objects in the world and nothing else.” How the only words that truly mean something are the words that correspond to an object.
I have identified myself in this chapter because I have always found myself in trouble or misinterpreted because of the tone in which I say things. Therefore this is what struck me the most, that words can be interpreted in a numerous amount of ways. I think I subconsciously knew this but talking about it in class made me ponder and look back on the way I put my speech to use. Something else that I believe was always buried in my subconscious but I had never actually deeply thought about was the fact that language isn't only the speech that comes from our mouths but our body language is also another form of communication. It was interesting to realize this because it made me observe and notice things that I hadn't before in the individuals around me.
This chapter impressed me a lot. I find amazing how people interpret the same sentences in a different way. Language is probably the most important thing in life, because is how people communicate but, this chapter made me think on how language, even though it's very important, can create many problems because people interpret it in different ways and many times there can be many misunderstandings. I found very interesting the part of translation in this chapter, and is done very well to let the reader understand because of the many examples made. I realized how language is complicated and this made me notice many things that I didn't notice before. Ginevra Pier
In my opinion the most interesting thing I learnt was the fact that simple phrases can be interpreted so differently, sentences which we take for granted, expressions, none of them can be translated. But still we think that this one word refers to one thing or concept, yet it is only our interpretation of this concept.
ReplyDeleteTalking about language and meaning, what impressed me the most was probably learning about semiotics. This is probably beacause I had never heard of it before. Anyways, i find it interesting how people study this system of signs to connect and create parallel paths with language. This system leads to the meaning of things. Like when you look up a word in a dictionary, it only leads to another word, and then another word again. This system leads to the true meaning of things. We can tie this discussion to language as a miscommunication. Renaming a problem leads to one question to another question, and really not progresing. But if we can always keep asking questions does this mean that nothing is really real?
ReplyDeleteIn this chapter about language what impressed me the most is probably how words assume different meanings depending on the rules that govern their use. The fact that language also determines out thoughts and our view of the world is another important concept because there are never enough words to express what we think or what we see, still, if we use correctly the limited amount of words me know, then our "message" can be passed on rather clearly.
ReplyDeleteWhat really impressed me most about this chapter was the section on "language and meaning". It made me realize that most of us do not truly understand/perceive the true meaning of the almost infinite amount of words we use in the English language. Sometimes I find myself thinking about a word and spelling it out so many times that the sound of the word separates itself from it's meaning. It no longer sounds like a real word to me. If we tried doing this daily with at least one word in our vocabulary we would start comprehending the true complexities and "weirdness" of our language. Also, I really liked learning about the linguistics and philosophers that pondered on meaning and language.
ReplyDeleteIn this last unit of our TOK class, what impressed me the most is probably how one word can have mean different things. Like the example given in the book with the ice cream being 'nice'. One can refer to the ice cream as being nice, as in tasty and good; but not as 'nice' as in a person being comforting and respectful. Most of us can perceive things in a different way, tone also can come into play when talking about perceiving things in a certain way. Sometimes when I drive back home and am in the car alone, I think to myself, why is a car called 'car' ? or a dog called a 'dog' ? and many other things like that. Why does it seem like we have to label everything ? Maybe it makes our life easier, who knows. One simple word could lead to five other words, and those five other words could each lead to ten other words and so on. Us humans are lucky enough to have an infinite amount of words that we can use to describe our world surrounding us, it's up to us to figure out how to use them correctly though.
ReplyDeletewhat struck me the most in this chapter of the TOK class, is the language and meaning section. particularly, the problems that airse whan translating. there are various examples in the book related to translation, and i find them extremely interesting. there are things in life, like language, that one tends to take for granted, and people tend to not reallystop and think about it. but when you do, you realise that what you took for granted before seems peculiar. like the example of the "ich liebe dich", and the fact that it is not just the english "I love you", but it can be said only by certain people and in certain circumstances.
ReplyDeleteIn this unit, the thing I found most interesting was how there are certain concepts that just cannot be defined by people. It is very true that oftentimes we feel, think or believe something that cannot be expressed by language. Essentially, then, a great deal goes unexpressed and remains in us. We all experience similar feelings though, so if we do mention the words "love" or "friendship" or "sadness", the other person will know what we're talking about, even if we can't express it in words.
ReplyDeleteI also thought how words are lost in translation was interesting. I recall in a film I once saw, it took one person over a minute to express an idea that was cut down to a sentence in another language. Some words and phrases cannot be translated exactly. This means that a concept can be lost.
The last two classes, particularly amazed me. I was aware of how different words or sentences have different meaning, the so called homonym we learn at elementary, and that know we describe with philosophical words as the Fallacy of Ambiguity,. Yet reading the chapter on language and meaning i became conscious that it dealt with much more than this, it explained how language means something because it stands for something real. Often we are unable to represent symbols or objects with words and therefore we are left with a thorny problem that has to do with understanding of words. What people don't know is that the concepts we want to say are not wrong, but it's the language that is unable to describe them, therefore describe what we mean often ends up to be impossible.
ReplyDeleteIn this chapter of "Language" the thing that impressed the most was the fact that "language gives a representation of the world." It is said that meaningful language stands for objects in the world and nothing else. In my opinion that phrase is true becasue if you think there every single word has a specific meaning, even sounds are given words (onomatopias). With words we understand the meaning of things, for example we all know the meaning word LOVE and we know this word represents affection and if is a positive thing whereas we also know that the word HATE represents something negative; so like that every single world in the world represents something.
ReplyDeleteIn this unit what I learnt and found most interesting was the fact that anything we believe has an obvious when expressed through language is, in fact, not at all so and can change meaning depending on the way it is analysed. Language is in fact very subjective and depends greatly on how our minds interpret it, although we have been educated in such a way that our interpretations of language are very similar, if not identical, however, people from different cultures may interpret things a lot differently.
ReplyDeleteThe part of our unit that has hit me the most so far during our TOK class, is the whole concept of the mind, and how it works. I was fascinated when we studied it, because i realized that it was something that i had never actually sat down and thought about before. I find the way how people interpret colors in a different ways just astonishing. How the world may seem what it is in our mind, but in someone else's mind it may be another story. Also, I had never gone into depth as to why an apple has the name 'apple' and not 'peach'. What difference would it make? Why do words exist? Who created them? Where did they come from? None of these questions have an answer, yet, they have many answers from different points of view.
ReplyDeleteTOK class is a completely new subject to all of us, but it has particularly struck me, especially in these last sections in which we talked about language. What I found most interesting has been to learn how even one word, said in a wrong circumstance can cause discommunciation, because of maybe, its multiple meanings. WHat i learned in fact, was that language often leads to discommunication, and so things we intent to say may be interpreted differently from the person right next to us. Also, the fact that we don't know why a chair is not a diary, and it is a chair instead, suscitates many other questions, and answers, who give light to different opinions, and points of view: this is TOK.
ReplyDeleteIn the topic of "Language" that impressed me the most, as a learner in our class of TOK, was that certain words have so many different connotations to it. That words have many different meanings, and within those meanings, there are different separate meanings, thus referring back to; questions that are within questions, within other questions, this concludes that a question has no direct answer, because there will always be an infinite question, one after the other.
ReplyDeleteWe notice these words and situations as a routine in our daily life, we never stop and ask the question; "Why is this like this?"
We don't have the mental strength to actual understand the meaning of each and everything that surrounds us in our daily life. We may want to understand the point of view that is drawn across such a given situation, but we will never find the definite answer to it.
For example for someone who would be learning a new language (their first language) they would be asking themselves such questions as; "What is a chair?" and "Why is a chair called a 'chair'?" one is grown up to known such things and not to ask questions to why one thing is called one thing.
In the section on language what intrested me the most was the emphasis on how words don't have a true definition since the defintion of one word always leads to the questioning of another word. If we find a defintion in the dictionary of one word we will find a doubt on another word used to define the first word. As chloe said, words are very complex and curious, therefore language is even more complicated since it builds upon words.
ReplyDeleteSince there is such a vast field of words, language is subjective. Each word we use shows characteristics on each person. Also our language derives our culture and particularities about our habitual enviromemt.
AGD:
ReplyDeleteI found this chapter very interesting in TOK, all about language. I have always thought that language was essential to the human world, but I found out how many problems language makes. Out of the things we learnt the one that made me think the most was how much language is misused. How from saying certain things one understands thing that are only inferred. When someone calls and they ask “is your mother in” it means so much more. As in it means is she home so I can talk to her. Another thing I found interesting is the concept of learning words. To know the true meaning of a word you need to know other words and so on and so forth. So how does one learn the meaning of words when they don’t know any other? Chomsky made me think of many things too for example when he says “Language gives a repetition of the world. Meaningful language stands for objects in the world and nothing else.” How the only words that truly mean something are the words that correspond to an object.
I have identified myself in this chapter because I have always found myself in trouble or misinterpreted because of the tone in which I say things. Therefore this is what struck me the most, that words can be interpreted in a numerous amount of ways. I think I subconsciously knew this but talking about it in class made me ponder and look back on the way I put my speech to use. Something else that I believe was always buried in my subconscious but I had never actually deeply thought about was the fact that language isn't only the speech that comes from our mouths but our body language is also another form of communication. It was interesting to realize this because it made me observe and notice things that I hadn't before in the individuals around me.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter impressed me a lot. I find amazing how people interpret the same sentences in a different way. Language is probably the most important thing in life, because is how people communicate but, this chapter made me think on how language, even though it's very important, can create many problems because people interpret it in different ways and many times there can be many misunderstandings. I found very interesting the part of translation in this chapter, and is done very well to let the reader understand because of the many examples made. I realized how language is complicated and this made me notice many things that I didn't notice before.
ReplyDeleteGinevra Pier