After congragulating myself for successfully logging into the blog for the first time, I proceeded to go back through everyone's posts to bring myself up to speed. It seemed to me that most of us would say that language is an extremely powerful force, though I could be wrong in making that assumption. Still, as a question for everyone, how much weight can we put in words?
I must admit that as I started reading Language in Thought and Action, I felt a certain degree of skepticism. Hayakawa obviously believes that humans and most other organisms seek to cooperate. As a fierce supporter of Darwin, I naturally find the idea that life seeks to cooperate rather than compete somewhat hard to swallow. To me, Hayakawa's theories fit more with Mutual Aid rather than On the Origin of Species. When page 12 informed me that all of the book's ideas were based on the assumption that humans naturally seek intraspecific cooperation, I confess that I did not expect to agree with everything Hayakawa put forward. I was pleasantly surprised to find the book interesting, informative, and insightful. Still, I could not help but doubt some of the book's concepts. Hayakawa clearly had a passionate love for Language, one so strong that I don't doubt he would have married her if he could have. I like Language as a friend, but she seems inconsistent sometimes and I question her ability to support me or others; I would be hesitant to take our relationship any further.
I think it was Chloe who brought up the cliche "actions speak louder than words." (If it wasn't, I apologize to whoever did mention it.) Don't they? In AP Euro we were discussing how French "kings" in the 13th and 14th century had all the power on paper, but in reality it was the ranchers with large estates that controlled daily life. Similarly, Sunday morning political pundits frequently question Barack Obama's ability to flesh out his rhetoric into action. One can repeat the word "change" over and over, but to legislate it is another thing entirely.
It seems to me that words are largely dependent on what they symbolize. Hayakawa wrote (I paraphrase) that there is no necessary connection between words and the things they represent. If there is no necessary connection, then what power does the word have? Does it have an inherent power, or does it only have as much power as we give it? I don't know the answer to this question. Help?
--Colin Groundwater
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I am livid that my comment was just deleted. I don't know what happened to it.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I was also baffled by Hayakawa's statement about how there is no necessary connection between words and the things they represent. However, going back to your second paragraph, I do agree with Hayakawa's idea that says that the language is a tool used for cooperation. Hayakawa also says that all organisms that make noises, or communicate, in order to keep peace. In all species of organisms, there is something called rank. I believe that somebody needs to be in charge of power in order to keep peace(however, not in a sense of dictatorship.) Although both intraspecific and interspecific struggles do exist in nature, they are just the part of the process to keep peace. After the ranks are decided both within and among the species, all the organisms will eventually cooperate to whom has the greatest power, no matter whether it was done either willingly or reluctantly . At first, these struggles can be seen as a competition, however, I believe that they are the necessary part of the process in order to cooperate and keep peace in all organisms.
-Joanne Park
In my opinion, a word itself (that is, the letters written on a piece of paper or the sound that comes out of our mouths when we say a word) has no meaning whatsoever. After all, it's just random symbols on paper (or random sounds, if spoken). A child's unrecognizable drawing could yield equal power to a word if only our minds would view it that way. The only power a word has is what our minds give to it or are taught to give to it through our upbringing.
ReplyDelete-Bryce Cody