LANGUAGE as a Way of Knowing LANGUAGE IS

LANGUAGE as a Way of Knowing

LANGUAGE IS a system of conventional spoken or written symbols used by people in a shared culture to communicate with each other. A language both reflects and affects a culture's way of thinking, and changes in a culture influence the development of its language.

LANGUAGE: SYMBOLIC SYSTEM How does language create meaning? through the way our symbols create the stimulus and response of language behavior through the way they refer to things and ideas through the way they stir associations of ideas Central to meaning is symbolism – the use of one thing (an object, an image, a sound, a word) to stand for something else, with a connection between them that we create ourselves according to our own conventions.

SIGNS: SIMPLE SYMBOLS Signs convey a direct and fixed connection, a one-to-one representation of what we have invented and learned.

WORDS: COMPLEX SYMBOLS In our language communities words are assigned into categories of experiences that we share, thus allowing us to exchange meaning socially. Words group the sensations that we associate in the neutral networks of our sense perception, or possible give us a grouping that influences our perception of them.

WORDS & GRAMMAR: THE SYMBOLIC SYSTEM

LANGUAGE IN WRITING Has the development of writing influenced the way we think? Writing turns words into things as it detaches them from the passing context and moment It allows us to store and examine accumulated knowledge It facilitates political administration of large numbers of people

SHADES OF MEANING Denotation & Connotation Specific Definitions Deliberate Ambiguity Metaphor Symbolism

PERSPECTIVES IN LANGUAGE The quality of our knowledge exchanges depends on our becoming critically aware of the influence of perspective on what is said and how it is expressed – by ourselves and by others. SLANTED WRITING ACTIVITY: In order to appreciate how perspective influences language even at the level of fairly simple description, try a bit of “slanted” or biased writing. Choose one incident from your life. Write a list of five to ten pieces of information about that incident. Write two descriptions of it which do not contradict each other factually but which communicate different values and emotions through your selected information, the emphasis on the information, and your word choice.