I'm currently reading the book We by Yevgeny Zamyatin which is about a dystopian society in which the government yields absolute control. In the book, the citizens of the society (which is referred to as the One State) do not have names such as Jennifer or Brian, but rather are assigned a letter followed by a number. For example, the main character is named D-503 and his "girlfriend" (by the One State's permission) is named O-90.
This reminded me of Hayakawa's comments about the primitive belief that one's name has a certain power over that person on pg. 48. Hayakawa feels that a name is simply a symbol, and that this primitive belief is a result of the confusion between word and thing. But as I continued reading We, I couldn't help but feel as if names really do have some special sort of "power". This left me with the question of whether one's name really means anything. Is it a defining part of our lives? Does it make us unique? Or is it simply a word, like all other words? Opinions?
-Bryce Cody
Monday, September 7, 2009
Dictionaries
As many others have said, Hayakawa's principles relate directly to everyday life. Today, I was helping my family clean out my great-grandparents house that is going to be sold. While I was going through a massive pile of books, an old dictionary caught my eye. I wasn't able to find a publishing date in it, so I looked it up on the internet and found out that it was published in 1945. The complete title is The Winston Dictionary: Primary Edition, With Every Word Defined So That Its Use and Meaning Can Be Easily Understood.
When I first saw the dictionary, I immediately thought of how words change over time, and how much different this dictionary must be from the ones we use today. Probably the most obvious word popped into my head: "computer". I looked this up in the dictionary and found that it wasn't there, although "computation" and "compute" were. On the same page, I saw another word: "comptograph- a kind of adding machine which prints the sum arrived at". I looked this word up in my modern dictionary, and found that it also was not included.
I then looked again at the title of the book, and began thinking about what dictionaries really do. According to The Winston Dictionary, they define a word "so that its use and meaning can be easily understood." I dealt with this topic a bit in my scrapbook. Hayakawa states that "We learn the meanings of practically all our words (which are, it will be remembered, merely complicated noises), not from dictionaries, not from definitions, but from hearing these noises as they accompany actual situations in life and learning to associate certain noises with certain situations.” Although dictionaries may strive to make their words "easily understood", a formal definition can only aid in the process of understanding a word. We must experience the word in life to really understand what it means.
The Winston Dictionary also had a section called "The Development of English". I read the first couple paragraphs of this, and I found quote that was almost exactly like Hayakawa's ideas: "The English language is a 'going concern'. Its business is expanding and there is continual need for new words the meet the demands made upon it. In these times of intense living and rapid progress we are daily finding new things, thinking new things, for which we need new words. Anything that affeects a great many people or receives extensive consideration adds its quota of words to vocabulary." It goes on to give examples of things important to the 1945 time period that added words to the English language: the automobile, the motion picture, World War II, the airplane, and radio transmissions.
-Audrey Kindsfather
When I first saw the dictionary, I immediately thought of how words change over time, and how much different this dictionary must be from the ones we use today. Probably the most obvious word popped into my head: "computer". I looked this up in the dictionary and found that it wasn't there, although "computation" and "compute" were. On the same page, I saw another word: "comptograph- a kind of adding machine which prints the sum arrived at". I looked this word up in my modern dictionary, and found that it also was not included.
I then looked again at the title of the book, and began thinking about what dictionaries really do. According to The Winston Dictionary, they define a word "so that its use and meaning can be easily understood." I dealt with this topic a bit in my scrapbook. Hayakawa states that "We learn the meanings of practically all our words (which are, it will be remembered, merely complicated noises), not from dictionaries, not from definitions, but from hearing these noises as they accompany actual situations in life and learning to associate certain noises with certain situations.” Although dictionaries may strive to make their words "easily understood", a formal definition can only aid in the process of understanding a word. We must experience the word in life to really understand what it means.
The Winston Dictionary also had a section called "The Development of English". I read the first couple paragraphs of this, and I found quote that was almost exactly like Hayakawa's ideas: "The English language is a 'going concern'. Its business is expanding and there is continual need for new words the meet the demands made upon it. In these times of intense living and rapid progress we are daily finding new things, thinking new things, for which we need new words. Anything that affeects a great many people or receives extensive consideration adds its quota of words to vocabulary." It goes on to give examples of things important to the 1945 time period that added words to the English language: the automobile, the motion picture, World War II, the airplane, and radio transmissions.
-Audrey Kindsfather
Gender and Language
One of the elements of words that have a built-in judgment is gender. For example, people "know" that John is a boy's name and that Jennifer is a girl's name. People have gender assumptions not only with names but also with colors. Many boys say "I'm not gonna wear a pink shirt because pink is a girl color."
People tend to categorize colors and names by genders; and this is true worldwidely. Few days ago, I was online searching through web sites, and I found this interesting Korean web site that gave interesting statistics about names. I typed in my Korean name just for fun and I found out that my name was more popular as a boy's name. It also gave me the percentage of how popular my name was, and it concluded the genders of the characters of my name. My Korean name is Ji Hwan and the web site told me that Ji was a feminine character, and that Hwan was an extremely masculine character.
I wasn't surprised by this because I've grown up with people's comments about how I have a boy's name. The worst thing was in 3rd grade, there was a boy who had the same name as me and even the teacher forced me to be partners with him for almost all activities. In elementary school, my friends made fun of my name but looking back, I was surprised by how younger children are more affected by the word with built in judgments. My friends eventually stopped making fun of my name as they got older and they also stopped caring about the "girliness" of colors.
I also thought about what decides the genders of colors and names, and I could only think of one thing. The set standards. Both names and colors have been in existance for a long time and I don't know exactly when, but I could assume that the gender assumption was made a long time ago, too. Because people have been believing the gender assumption for such a long time, they accepted the assumption as a fact. Maybe young children decided the genders of colors by watching Power Rangers since the Pink Ranger and the Yellow Ranger were the females.
Any ideas?
-Joanne Park
People tend to categorize colors and names by genders; and this is true worldwidely. Few days ago, I was online searching through web sites, and I found this interesting Korean web site that gave interesting statistics about names. I typed in my Korean name just for fun and I found out that my name was more popular as a boy's name. It also gave me the percentage of how popular my name was, and it concluded the genders of the characters of my name. My Korean name is Ji Hwan and the web site told me that Ji was a feminine character, and that Hwan was an extremely masculine character.
I wasn't surprised by this because I've grown up with people's comments about how I have a boy's name. The worst thing was in 3rd grade, there was a boy who had the same name as me and even the teacher forced me to be partners with him for almost all activities. In elementary school, my friends made fun of my name but looking back, I was surprised by how younger children are more affected by the word with built in judgments. My friends eventually stopped making fun of my name as they got older and they also stopped caring about the "girliness" of colors.
I also thought about what decides the genders of colors and names, and I could only think of one thing. The set standards. Both names and colors have been in existance for a long time and I don't know exactly when, but I could assume that the gender assumption was made a long time ago, too. Because people have been believing the gender assumption for such a long time, they accepted the assumption as a fact. Maybe young children decided the genders of colors by watching Power Rangers since the Pink Ranger and the Yellow Ranger were the females.
Any ideas?
-Joanne Park
Physical and Social Context
On Friday, I babysat for my almost three-year old neighbor. Spending several hours with a child who is just learning how to speak afforded me the perfect opportunity to see many of Hayakawa's principles in action. One of the most interesting observations I made was dealing with the idea of physical and social context. During the time I was babysitting, my neighbor constructed a block tower. As he tried to add on to the tower, he accidentally knocked the entire construction over. As a response, I offered the entirely meaningless word "Whoopsie." The word at first was recieved with quizzical looks from my neighbor, but after that, everytime he knocked over the blocks, he would repeat the word.
This scenario serves as an example of how we learn what words symbolize. Although my neighbor had never heard the word I used to express that a mistake had been made, he was able to interpret what I was saying based on the context of the situation. My neighbor then took the formerly meaningless word and began using it to express that he had made a mistake. After observing my neighbor and his developing speech, my faith in Hayakawa's ideas was reaffirmed.
-Tara Burns
This scenario serves as an example of how we learn what words symbolize. Although my neighbor had never heard the word I used to express that a mistake had been made, he was able to interpret what I was saying based on the context of the situation. My neighbor then took the formerly meaningless word and began using it to express that he had made a mistake. After observing my neighbor and his developing speech, my faith in Hayakawa's ideas was reaffirmed.
-Tara Burns
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Signal Reactions
Its almost creepy how much Language in Thought and Action applies to daily life. My house is currently under constuction and we don't have a kitchen. We've been eating off of paper plates, and these get thrown in trash cans around the house. My dogs then find these paper plates and rip them to shreds, leaving those shreds all over the carpet for us to clean up. This morning, I found these wonderful shreds in our living room and I wondered why my dogs insisted on eating these plates. They aren't food. But then I thought of Hayakawa and his chapter on signal versus symbol reactions. My dogs are having a signal reaction to the plates. The plates smell like the pepperoni pizza my brother had for lunch yesterday, so why wouldn't they be the pepperoni pizza? Dogs aren't as advanced as humans and therefore don't realize that the symbol is not the thing symbolized. If the plate smells like pepperoni pizza, they think it must taste like pepperoni pizza. This leaves me to clean up whats left of the plate, which will most likely be attacked again unless it is put out of their reach. Its a good thing humans have symbol reactions instead, or we'd being eating plates too.
~Elizabeth Campbell
~Elizabeth Campbell
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Power of Body Language
Human communication is said to be primarily expressed and interpreted through body language. I firmly believe in this. From our tone of voice to mere eye contact, we are capable of conveying our moods, beliefs, interests, etc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_language)
The same, simple body gestures can indicate different meanings under certain circumstances. For instance, the raised eyebrow can indicate shock, excitement, or even condescension. When someone is astonished by, say, a surprise birthday party, he most likely raises his eyebrows and opens his mouth widely in awe. When, however, a haughty individual patronizes a store, she may superciliously raise her eyebrows when talking to an employee and behave as if she is "above" said employee. (I have discerned this many times at my job, unfortunately.)
Tone of voice can manifest the mood of an individual. If a mother loses her patience to a rambunctious child, she will usually raise her voice peremptorily to denote her intolerance to the child's bad behavior.
Eye contact--or lack thereof--is a powerful form of body language. If somebody is giving a captivating oral presentation in class, the audience will probably remain focused on the speaker. If, however, the speaker's presentation is wanting, the audience may shift their eyes to different objects due to boredom, or even fall asleep.
There are many other forms of body language that reveal people in some manner. We even use body language unconsciously.
-Chloe Martianou
The same, simple body gestures can indicate different meanings under certain circumstances. For instance, the raised eyebrow can indicate shock, excitement, or even condescension. When someone is astonished by, say, a surprise birthday party, he most likely raises his eyebrows and opens his mouth widely in awe. When, however, a haughty individual patronizes a store, she may superciliously raise her eyebrows when talking to an employee and behave as if she is "above" said employee. (I have discerned this many times at my job, unfortunately.)
Tone of voice can manifest the mood of an individual. If a mother loses her patience to a rambunctious child, she will usually raise her voice peremptorily to denote her intolerance to the child's bad behavior.
Eye contact--or lack thereof--is a powerful form of body language. If somebody is giving a captivating oral presentation in class, the audience will probably remain focused on the speaker. If, however, the speaker's presentation is wanting, the audience may shift their eyes to different objects due to boredom, or even fall asleep.
There are many other forms of body language that reveal people in some manner. We even use body language unconsciously.
-Chloe Martianou
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thoughts and Emotions
Is it just me, or did Language in Thought and Action ignore the first part of its title? I know it's most likely because we only read the first eight chapters, but I was really looking forward to how Hayakawa was going to describe language in thought. I had never even considered what life was like before language, before common words that everyone agreed upon, until reading this book, and I found that I was amazed and confused. How did people even think without words?
We think in words and we feel in words. Society has become so used to putting a label on everything that goes on in life that people are losing the ability to really feel without analyzing or jumping to conclusions. So many couples think what they feel for each other is called "love," so they verbalize that emotion and then feel forced to do everything that other couples in "love" have done. Who knows if what they feel is strong enough to keep them together for life, or if they simply let a word they do not understand change their lives forever? Why must people assign words to such strong emotions? There have only been a few times when I have felt ways that I can't describe with words, and those are the emotions I remember most. When the words do not exist to define it, we are forced to really feel it. I think Language should leave Emotions alone. What does everyone else think?
-Alexa Kaczmarski
We think in words and we feel in words. Society has become so used to putting a label on everything that goes on in life that people are losing the ability to really feel without analyzing or jumping to conclusions. So many couples think what they feel for each other is called "love," so they verbalize that emotion and then feel forced to do everything that other couples in "love" have done. Who knows if what they feel is strong enough to keep them together for life, or if they simply let a word they do not understand change their lives forever? Why must people assign words to such strong emotions? There have only been a few times when I have felt ways that I can't describe with words, and those are the emotions I remember most. When the words do not exist to define it, we are forced to really feel it. I think Language should leave Emotions alone. What does everyone else think?
-Alexa Kaczmarski
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