Language and Thought

Chapter 6, Chaffee

Critical Thinking

Language

A system of symbols for thinking andcommunicating

Sentence meaning: Word sense

–Semantic meaning

–Perceptual meaning

–Syntactic meaning

–Pragmatic meaning

Tool

–To clarify thinking

–For social communication

–To influence people

–Word Sense

Evolution of language

Language live, change, and die

E.g., Latin – a ‘dead’ language

English

–Old English , AD 700-1050

–Middle English AD 1050-1450

–Early Modern English, AD 1450-1700

–Modern English, 1700-Present

The Lord’s Prayer

Faeder ure

Thu the eart onhenofonum,

Si thin name gehalgod.

Tobecume thin rice.

Gewurthe thin willa oneorthan swa swa onheofonum.

Urne gedaeghwamlicanhlaf syle you to daeg.

And forgyf you urnegyltas,swa swa youforgyfath urumgyltendum,

And ne gelaed thu youon costnunge, ac alysyou of yfele,Sothlice.

Oure fadur

That art in hauenes,

Halewid be thi name;

This kyngdoom cometo;

Be thi wile don in ertheas in heuene; zyueto vs this dai ourebreed ouer othirsubstanunce;

And forzyue to vs ouredettis, as youforzyuen to ouredettouris;

And lede vs not in totemptacioun,

But delyuere vs.fromyeul. Amen.

Our Father

Which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thyname.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, inearth, as it it is inheaven.

Give us this day ourdaily bread.

And forgive us ourdebts, as we forgiveour debtors.

And lead us not intotemptation, butdeliver us from evil,for Thine is thekingdom, and thepower and the gloryfor ever. Amen.

Differences in Prayer version

Sounds

Words

Sentences

/oure//our/

Gyltas –dettis –debts/

trespasses

Forgyf you urne gyltas, swaswa you forgyfath urumgyltendeum

Forzyue to vs oure dettis, asou forzyuen to oure dettouris

Homo sapiens’ ability tosymbolize

Let one thing represent something else

Words stand for or represent objects, ideas, andother aspects of human experience’

System of spoken sounds and written markingsthat we use to represent various aspects of ourexperience (p. 206)

Set of symbolic building blocks:

–Sounds – letters

–Words – objects, thoughts, feelings, actions, concepts

–Meaning – combination of all ideas feelings associatedwith word

Denotative and connotativemeanings of words

Create 2 columns: men and women.

Write down all the words that you can think of that we use todescribe men’s body weight

List all the words that you can think of to describe women’sbody weight

Go back and mark whether the words are negative or positiveor neutral

How many positive words are there for women? For men?

Meanings of the words?

What is the difference between denotative and connotativemeanings of words?

What are the different meaningsof the following words (p. 207)

College education

Happiness

Freedom

Creative

Love

Creativity

What are some other “loaded words” that conjureup different meanings?

Total meaning of words

Semantic meaning

–Relationship between a linguistic event and anonlinguistic event

–Denotative meaning – general properties thatdetermine the way the word is used

Perceptual meaning

–Relationship between a linguistic event and anindividual’s consciousness

–Connotative meaning – literal or basic meaningplus all it suggests

Total meaning of words

Syntactic meaning

–Relationship of word to other words in a sentence

•Content: words that express the major message of the sentence

•Description: words that elaborate or modify the majormessage

•Connection: words that join the major message of the sentence

Pragmatic meaning

The person speaking and the situation

Jabberwocky

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought –

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

…….

Word meaning: semantic,perceptual, & pragmatic

Abortion: pro-life, anti-abortion, pro-choice, pro-abortion

The Language of Cloning: human cloning,nuclear transplantation, therapeutic cellulartransfer (TCT), cloned embryos, activatedegg, cleaving egg, ovasome

Using language effectively

Understand how language functions

Read widely

Analyze the work of highly regarded writers whouse word meanings accurately

Use action verbs, concrete nouns, vivid adjectives

Vary sentence length to keep the reader’s attentionand create a variety of senetnce styles to enrichmeaning

Use the full range of words to express yourself

Get feedback from other people

From Blue Highways

Action Verbs

Concrete Nouns

Vivid Adjectives

Pulled up

Aluminum chairs

wandering

Using language to clarify thinking:

Language reflects thinking and thinking isshaped by language.

Language is a tool powered by patterns ofthinking.

Language has the power to representthoughts, feelings, and experiencessymbolically.

How well you perform one process (writingor speaking) is directly related to how wellyou perform the other (thinking).

the interactive relationshipbetween language and thinking

Sloppy use of language (vague, general,indistinct, imprecise, foolish, inaccurate)leads to sloppy thinking.

Clear and precise language leads to clearand precise thinking.

Clear effective language vs. language thatfails to help reader form a picture orunderstand the writer’s meaning.

Vague words: lack clear distinctmeaning

I had a nice time yesterday.

That is an interesting book.

She is an old person.

Pulp Fiction is a really funny movie about somereally unusual characters in California. The movieconsists of several different stories that connectcup at different points. Some of the stories arenerve-racking and others are hilarious, but all ofthem are not very well done. The plots are veryinteresting, and the main characters are excellent.I liked this movie a lot.

Clarifying vague langauge

Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?

Use clear and precise language.

An ecstatically entertaining piece of suavemockery by Quentin Tarantino that revels in everymanner of pulp flagrancy – murder and betrayal,drugs, sex and episodes of sardonically distancedsadomasochism – all told in three overlappingtales. It’s a very funky, American sort of popmasterpiece improbably, uproarious, with brightcolors and danger and blood right on the surface.

Ambiguous language

Account of Avianca Flight 52 (p. 225)

If the pilot of the airplane were alive, howdo you think he would analyze the cause ofthe crash?

How do the air traffic controllers and theFAA analyze the cause of the crash?

How do you analyze the cause of the crash?What reasons led you to that conclusion?

Language in social contexts

Different social contexts call for differentlanguage responses.

Familiarity – abbreviation of language stylewhich identifies shared thinking andrestricts group of people who cancommunicate within this context

Styles separate outsiders

Use language to identify the social contextgand to define the relationship between thepeople communicating

Standard American English

Rules and conventions given in handbooksand taught in school

Use of SAE represents membership ineducated group

Lexical items, e.g., ‘bell curve’ ‘literarysymbol’

Slang, Jargon, Dialect

Slang: a restrictive style of langauge thatlimits its speakers to a particular group

Jargon: words, expressions, technical termsthat are intelligible to the professionalcircles or interest groups but not to thegeneral public

Dialects: system of communicationdistinguished by sounds and markingsamong given groups of people

Language used to influence

Euphemistic language: substituting a morepleasant less objectionable way of sayingsomething for a blunt or more direct way

Emotive language: language that evokesfeelings in people