Language Limits Our World
When Wittgenstein said, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world," he was very likely speaking of philosophical limits, and not phenomenological ones. However, inherent in the very possibility of considering language and limitations is the possibility of a phenomenological meaning as well. Indeed, it one has language that is too impoverished to admit of various experiences, one is very unlikely to have them, or, if one does have those experiences, of recalling them. We recall our lives in language.
This may help explain, to use a completely pedestrian example, the idiotic answers people give to questions asked by Jay Leno on his Jaywalking segments. The ignorance shown by the interviewees is legendary, and it also involves mistakes with and misconstructions of language. For example, he might ask who wrote the Gettysburg Address, and he might get the answer, "The guy who founded Gettysburg." One might consider the answer to be a mistake in facts. However,...
Language & Community How Language Circumscribes the World and Defines Community The famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Wittgenstein used his language to make this profound statement packed with a depth of meaning. Language, whether it is written language, spoken language, body language or sign language, is a fundamental aspect to the human condition. Language permits us to communicate with others, which
Language and Culture In many, if not all, instances culture is not beneficial to its subscribers. Inherent within a culture is language. Language itself is very fluid and flexible and can elicit many emotions and feelings within a person or larger group of people. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the social influences of language by describing several issues that deal with interpersonal communication and more specifically the use
Language and Thinking Language is the one aspect, which distinguishes human beings from lower species of life (Faccone et al. 2000). Sternberg (1999 as qtd in Faccone et al.) lists its properties as including communication, arbitrary symbolism, regular structure, structure at multiple levels, generation and production and dynamism. Sternberg assumes that language is most likely acquired naturally from the environment where a person is raised as an infant. The stages seem
The reality is that the universal grammar theory attempts to lay general structures that can be traced among languages. Therefore, if a constant 'X' is true then 'Y' will be equally true. It puts down how all languages expand when subjected to a given set of fundamental principles. With these principles, universal grammar enables us to try out word order prediction in languages, the phonemes, syntax etc. Several linguists hold
The evidence for the biological basis of language is strong, however; researchers have found that newborn infants thought to be at a stage of development that precluded language abilities have been shown to recognize and express interest in spoken syllabic patterns over randomized syllables, and to retain that recognition over long periods of time (Gervain et al. 2008). The authors of this study conclude that the newborn brain is
Language and language diversity play an important role in the critical thinking process because these components help the individual determine and identify under what category or perspective information should be assigned to. This means that given a set of concepts and perspectives that an individual has, through language, one can easily identify the kind of information given and determine whether this information is best understood and analyzed using a particular
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