things that make you think

[theladyrose]

It is possible to determine how important a thing is to a society by the number of words that society has for it. The number of subtle distinctions show how much time they have spent thinking about it, how familiar they are with it, how important a part it plays in their lives. Thus, the Eskimo have twenty-two words for snow; the Bedouin, thirty-one words for sand.

From these kinds of examples the argument is also derived that to understand a culture, one must first understand its language.

And it is also these kinds of examples that make some cognitive scientists and linguists believe that language is the most useful tool we have for understanding the brain's higher functions. The brain receives information about the world through the senses and then organizes that information. And because language is entirely an abstract creation of the brain designed to help convey that organization, the idea is that if we can understand how language is designed, we can then understand how the brain functions by a kind of reverse engineering. The idea is that words expose us.

-Nic Kelman, Girls

Comments

[leonhart5.livejournal.com]

I think that's very true. I love languages; I've recently taken a particular interest in Japanese use of kanji. The kanji alphabet adds even more facination to me because of the way syllables have meanings to them. The combination of meanings is another insight language brings to a society; like the word for Crisis, made from the kanji for 'Danger' and 'Opportunity'.

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

The other interesting this about Kanji is its multiple meanings depending on which language you're studying, Japanese or Chinese. The character you're describing has the same meaning in Chinese, too, but many other characters common to both languages mean different things. But I'm sure you knew that already.

Which languages do you know?

[leonhart5.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had read that they are interpreted and pronounced different between the two. The thing that strikes me about it is that it must make things slightly confusing, but really I'd imagine it would be no more strange than the way English borrows words from French, or Italian.

I can't speak any languages fluently ^_^, although I have a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese (and French, although I forget more every day). So it's really more of a facination than a knowledge, but it's something I'm hoping to develop more when I get around to it (night school, most likely).

[iamdennisfuller.livejournal.com]

i'm not too big into livejournal, but i mean i must say..

i did a search or w/e to see who else was into john drake, and not only did you post him under "interests," but the prisoner and danny elfman as well.

kudos.

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Wow, I feel really pathetic and stupid for forgettig to reply to tis earlier, but thanks for the comment.