I have heard varying opinions on this question: Is math a language? Math is used as much as English is; we use it in our daily lives to purchase things and to count objects. We use math to express our internal thoughts. Take the statement "There are 2 birds." How would we make that statement without math? Or is math just one of those operational definitions like "weight" and "length" because we can't define math without bringing in the very definition of math?
So is math a language based on that evidence? I've heard that "math is the universal language." Math is understood by people in Taiwan and in Sweden and in Brazil. After all, it's just numbers. So are those numbers and square root symbols and plus and minus signs equivalent to letters and question marks and ampersands?
I thought about languages that don't use words physically. Math substitutes numbers for letters. Sign language substitutes gesticulations and facial expression for words and sentences. So if sign language doesn't physically use words, and math doesn't physically use words, is math a language?
-- tori lee
Math is to language the way virus is to life. Viruses have some of the qualities of living things, but not enough for them to really be called living. The same is with math, it has the symbols and characters that only someone who "speaks" it can understand, but lacks the applied value of language.
ReplyDeleteFreshman year we had a joke in our math class about taking math in Japanese. This stemmed from how when we opened our books, it might as well have been in Japanese for all we understood. It is impossible to solve math problems if you don't know what the "math words" and symbols mean. In the same way, it is impossible to reply to a letter written in Chinese if you don't know what the symbols mean.
However, math lacks the fundamental application fo language -- the ability to knit a society together. People converse, argue, learn, convince, all using language. It is essential to holding a society together. Imagine a society in which everyone spoke math. First of all, how do you speak math? Second, the society couldn't function. Granted, a society without math couldn't function either, but one with math as a main language would be doomed.
To bring in your sign language example, a society in which everyone motioned could work, just not well. Sign language replaces words, like water, sun, earth, etc. These words don't exist in math. A language misssing a few words is fine, but if it's missing as many as math is, it's no longer a language.
~ Becca LaRosa
I do agree with Becca that it would be impossible for a society to "speak math," however I also believe that there is an argument for classifying math as a language. In our book, Hayakawa talks about the "pooling of knowledge," or how language exists so knowledge can pass from one person to another and society can make progress. Under this particular criterion, math could qualify as a language. While it may not be the conventional view, I do think that there is an argument to justify naming math as a type of language.
ReplyDeleteTara Burns
I think that there are many types of languages that can't be "spoken", yet qualify as languages. Math, as all of you discussed, is certainly one of them. Music is another (I think all of you know I play the harp.) I'm not saying that the music you hear is a language, but the little black notes on the page are. Tara brought up the "pooling of knowledge" concept, which states that knowledge passes from person to person through the ages through language. Musicians can know what some composer back in the Rennaisance period played or sang because he wrote it down. This is just like the way math was written down. Both music and math consist of symbols that aren't letters that pass on information, so, in my opinion, they can both be considered a language.
ReplyDelete-Audrey Kindsfather
Becca, why don't you think math knits societies together? Math is sometimes a stepping stone between people of different nationalities. If one person on one side of the world was working on an equation and simultaneously, another person on the other side of the world was discovering the same thing, they could meet and discuss the math using math. It would be difficult with the, say, French/English difference, but not impossible. If they were merely conversing in those universal numbers and symbols, they could get by. That's a pretty rough example, but hopefully you see what I'm trying to say...?
ReplyDeleteAnd Audrey, I agree, thank you! Music is another form of language I didn't think of. True, math, music, and sign language would be very cumbersome to use if they were the ONLY languages implemented, but as supplements to English, French, etc., they are their own forms.
I also agree with Audrey that music is another form of language. They are used to express an idea, to spread information, or just to enjoy, but I also think that they are used as a tool for memorization, like oral tradition. People sombine the words and the melody together and make the information easier to memorize like the preposition song that you guy all obviously remember! And the alphabet song (my favorite song ever)
ReplyDelete-Joanne Park
My take on the matter is that mathematics can be defined as a language. If we were to take the whole of the English language, for example, and stick a label on it, could we not say that it is a collection of words and phrases that represent the physical world, our emotions, ideas, etc.? So if a language is a representation of ideas, could we not say that the numbers and signs of math are a language? (albeit unspoken)
ReplyDelete