Theory of Knowledge: Linguistics Day 3

By kuzma_b 　

ToK, Linguistics Day 2, Thursday, September 21st

  • The Power and Problem of Language
    • History in Texas
    • German vs. British Manners
    • Orwellian Language at the Pentagon
  • Homework

    Here are some questions about language. Choose one (1-5), and reflect on it in your journal. Make sure you write out the question in your journal too, so we know what you are writing about when we read it!

    1. How have spoken sounds acquired meaning? What is the nature of the connection between the sounds and what they are taken to represent?
    2. Is it possible to think without language? How does language extend, direct, or even limit thinking?
    3. To what extent does language generalize individual experience, classifying it within the experience of the group? To what extent does a personal experience elude expression in language?
    4. Can language be compared with other human forms of symbolic representation, such as conventionalized gestures, sign language for the deaf, dance, painting, music or mathematics? What might language share with these other forms in the communication of what we know? In what ways might it be considered distinct?
    5. To what extent is knowledge implicit in language? For example, could it be said that ‘Saturday is in bed’ does not convey meaning, even though the sentence is syntactically correct, because of the prior knowledge that days of the week are not physical objects?

     

This entry was written by kuzma_b, posted on September 21, 2017 at 6:05 pm, filed under Archive. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.