L – Language
04/14/2014 6 Comments
When I made my list of A to Z Challenge topics, I came up with things that I could largely remember, knew what I would or could talk about, and that would all be nicely thematic. However, while it’s a nice sounding topic, I cannot for the life of me remember what I was going to write about Language.
I could talk from the philosophical standpoint. About how, without language, how do we think? What do we think? What is it like? Just images? What do words “sound” like to a deaf person? Something that we will likely never be able to explain, constrained as we are by language.
There’s something often talked about – the constraints of language. About how there’s only so much we can describe with it. But how do you tell me what Red looks like? Or for that matter, what a Wine tastes like, though to be fair, those two could really just go together…
But what about the freeing aspects of language? How much more we CAN say because of it, rather than the difficult areas we lack sufficient synaesthesia to explain?
I think this calls for a reader-driven topic for the day. What are some of your favorite uses of language? Let me know in the comments section down below! I think I am going to change up my plans for tomorrow and talk about mine.
About CompGeekDavid
I love languages! It’s amazing to learn about other languages and realize that even when English just can’t describe a concept perfectly, other languages have more specific words that we can borrow…
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That is an amazing part of English, for sure – the way that it both co-opts terms from other languages, and allows for the invention and addition of words to the lexicon.
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This is an interesting line of thought. When I was small, my mum used to flummox me by asking questions such as “Why is the grass green?” and “If you could eat the sky, what would blue taste like?” I think it was a ruse to shut me up, but it shaped me into the inquisitive mind and research geek that I am today.
Happy A-Z’ing 🙂
http://thewayofwytch.wordpress.com/
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Blue tastes like blue Gatorade.
Thanks for stopping by!
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Dang. I should have looked at this sooner. I might’ve been able to come up with something to kick off a discussion. The A-to-Z has turned into a barely-get-it done sort of thing for me over the last few days. So instead, I’ll share a story idea that I obsessed on for ages before I abandoned it.
I had this idea for a fantasy or sci-fi story which plays with the “state of nature.” Basically, some others (gods, aliens, old ones, time travelers, who knows?) infected humans with language. Humans were perfect primates before that point, and when they learned language, that is when things started to go all wrong. I know it’s problematic (because other primates engage in warfare, or so I’ve been led to believe, and Chimpanzees can actually understand language passably well – they’d talk if their physiology was different), but I still think that idea has real potential in the hands of a better writer than me 😉
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Hmmm maybe it could be the story of how we discover that this was true, because we make it happen to the chimps… Although, probably too close to the Planet of the Apes, and they’re busy telling that origin story for no apparent reason right now…
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