lindagarrette Posted May 5, 2005 Report Posted May 5, 2005 Why don't you begin by breaking language into its component primitive parts? Read some linguistics. English has traded severe self-reference amidst words for a much simplified grammar (without gender!) wherein meaning is also dependent upon word order and punctuation. English is an extraordinarily terse way of saying things exactly - if you know what you are doing. Don't screw it up. I'm not sure what you mean by terse. One of the features of English is redundancy. It's often easy to say things many different ways and mean the same thing. Interpretation of the meaning, however, depends a lot on an individual's definition of terms. We have that problem all the time in this forum. I seem to recall having written a hypography on Historical Linguistics not too long ago but it seems to have gone into the dumpster. I thought it was pretty good. Quote
bumab Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Posted May 5, 2005 That's too bad- linguistics is a facinating subject. Any books to recommend on historical linguistics? I'm just wrapping up my latest read, and thinking of gettin' something on the subject. Quote
Fishteacher73 Posted May 6, 2005 Report Posted May 6, 2005 One of the trickiest aspects of English is the volume of common idioms used. I really have not seen this amount of idioms in any other languages I have studied. For ESL students this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to becom proficient in English. There is a massive vocabulary and many terms have vastly different meanings depending on context, and on top of that the literal translation of phrases is often erroneus. Quote
Buffy Posted May 6, 2005 Report Posted May 6, 2005 One of the trickiest aspects of English is the volume of common idioms used.No way. That's like, totally bogus. Pigs will fly before that's word up. Seen any pink elephants lately? That really bites the big one. Stylin,Buffy Quote
tarak Posted May 7, 2005 Report Posted May 7, 2005 I agree with you.Although subjective, there is always a kind of anxiety before you put your thought in words for people like us whose native (mother tongue)language is not english.The discipline of your expression always counts. A "I mean something you see it different" kind of predicament occurs often. Turtle 1 Quote
lindagarrette Posted May 7, 2005 Report Posted May 7, 2005 One of the trickiest aspects of English is the volume of common idioms used. I really have not seen this amount of idioms in any other languages I have studied. For ESL students this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to becom proficient in English. There is a massive vocabulary and many terms have vastly different meanings depending on context, and on top of that the literal translation of phrases is often erroneus. I had a semester long course in French "Slanguage." I speak Spanish fluently yet I find that so much idomatic differences exist between countries, it's possible to really goof up. All languages have a great many local or age-related variances on the base vocabulary. The trhickiest part of English is the mix of German and Latin based words. Turtle 1 Quote
gubba Posted May 8, 2005 Report Posted May 8, 2005 G'day folks, Do we really want to discuss our language usage etc. seriously? Linguistics is truely fascinating, but to get anywhere we really need some consensus over our terminology, a point that Tormod has tried to raise on more than one other thread I suspect. Awhile back I thought I might major in Linguistics, my imagination fired by the prospect of gaining greater insights into our central conscious mode of communications and fairly convinced by the linguists' credo that language was fundamentally speech and that it was through speech that the engine of language development occured. Unfortunately it was near the height of the Chomskian "Transformational Grammer" phenonomen downunder and the contradiction of being repeatedly asked to engage in pseudo-scientific, semi-mathematical, grammatical non-equations in Syntax, rather than attempting to grapple directly with our patterns of spoken words rapidly cooled my ardour. Still, I stand by the 80'S linguistic tenet that literacy is but our conscious recording of language but not language itself. Recent advances in neuroscience with all their wonderful MRI'S of our brainwaves have served to further develop Chomsky's initial insight into the biological core of our language facility. Does anyone want to explore further down this path, or would we rather enjoy witty wordplay (and good heavens!! why the Hell not???) and amusing anecdotes etc? Still would someone like to clarify their ideas? cheers gub. bumab 1 Quote
bumab Posted May 10, 2005 Author Report Posted May 10, 2005 Does anyone want to explore further down this path.... Sure! Start a thread along that path. Other interesting things to discuss would be the influence our language has on our thought patterns, not just the other way around. Quote
gubba Posted May 11, 2005 Report Posted May 11, 2005 G'day bumab, Why not? Thanks for the push I suppose it's exactly what I was after(?)cheers gub Quote
niviene Posted May 11, 2005 Report Posted May 11, 2005 G'day bumab, Why not? Thanks for the push I suppose it's exactly what I was after(?)cheers gub I'd love to see something on this... I am an avid linguistics fan. Quote
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