Friday, January 7, 2011
Language
This week we have been studying language, specifically English. In the beginning of the week we examined how a word gains or looses the status becoming an "official" word. However, on Friday, we watched a lecture about the evolution of language and English. I found this topic to be very interesting to see how languages develop. This lesson also connects with a question that I have had for a long time. I've realized that when I normally think or talk to myself in my head that I do so in English. This lead me to ask the question of what did people do before there was language? How did they think in their heads? It's strange to think about because you can't just forget the language you know. Another thing I find interesting about language is how it can directly affect our emotions. It's strange to think that a sentence containing words that have a purely artificial value have the ability to affect our biological being and state of mind.
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That is an interesting question. I've always wondered how if one thinks in a different language that it would be hard to instantaneously speak in another, but so many people around the world do. I also think that the "artificial" words that one speaks, no longer are artificial once they come out of the mouth. There had to have been an idea, turned into a thought, that then turned into a sentence, therefore this string of words is no longer artificial, but that's just my take.
ReplyDeleteI've found myself wondering that on specifically stoney days. I think in English and Japanese. But if there was no language, people obviously had to think differently. I think this forced people to be more visual as a whole, not only in order to communicate, but to think. I think once language became an option, our thinking and learning styles diversified. I also am a fan of the evolution of language with the evolution of man.
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