LANGUAGE: HUMANITYS GREAT EST INTELLECTUAL TOOL

1
LANGUAGE HUMANITYS GREAT- EST INTELLECTUAL
TOOL

• COMPARED WITH SPOKEN LANGUAGE,
• WRITING IS A FAIRLY RECENT INVEN-
• TION.

2
SPEAKING VS. WRITING

• HUMAN SPEECH DEVELOPED ANY-WHERE FROM 40,000 TO
  1 MILLION YEARS AGO.

3
SPEAKING VS. WRITING (cont.)

• THE EARLIEST ALPHABET (NORTH SEMETIC) DATES
  FROM AROUND 1700-1500 B.C.E. IN THE
  MEDITER-RANEAN REGION.

4
LIMITATIONS OF WRITING

• ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO ACCOMPLISH IN WRITING EXACTLY
  WHAT WE CAN ACCOMPLISH WHEN SPEAKING (E.G., W/
  VOLUME, STRESS, INTONATION).

5
LIMITATIONS OF WRITING (cont.)

• WITH WRITTEN WORDS, CONTEXT ALONE CLARIFIES
  MEANING WITH SPOKEN WORDS, PRONUNCIATION AND
  INFLECTION ALSO CLARIFY MEANING.

6
LIMITATIONS OF WRITING (cont.)

• WRITTEN COMMUNICATION IS RIFE WITH POSSIBILITIES
  FOR AMBIGU-ITY MUST TAKE PLACE W/OUT THE BENEFIT
  OF GESTURES, FACIAL EX-PRESSIONS, VOICE
  MODIFICATIONS.

7
LANGUAGE IS ARBITRARY

• FOR THE MOST PART, LANGUAGE IS ENTIRELY
  ARBITRARY, WITH NO CONNECTION BETWEEN SOUNDS/
  WORDS AND THE PHENOMENA OF LIFE.

8
LANGUAGE DIFFICULTY

• NO LANGUAGE IS INHERENTLY MORE DIFFICULT THAN
  ANOTHER, AND EV-ERY CHILD HAS MASTERED THE BASIC
  GRAMMAR OF HIS OR HER LANGUAGE BEFORE LEARNING TO
  WRITE.

9
WRITING/LANGUAGE

• TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, WRITING IS NOT LANGUAGE,
  BUT AN ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT LANGUAGE (OFTEN
  INADEQUATELY, AS WITH ENGLISH VOWELS).

10
STANDARDS OF CORRECTNESS

• STANDARDS OF CORRECTNESS ARE BASED ON THE USAGE
  OF SPEAKERS WRITERS OF ACKNOWLEDGED EXCEL-LENCE
  AT A PARTICULAR TIME, AS WELL AS ON COMMON
  PRACTICE.

11
STANDARDS OF CORRECTNESS (cont.)

• THERE ARE NO UNIVERSAL STAND-ARDS OF CORRECTNESS
  STANDARDS OF USAGE CHANGE.

12
CHANGING STANDARDS

• IT IS POSSIBLE TO DEFINITIVELY MAP CHANGES IN A
  LANGUAGE OVER LONG PERIODS OF TIME, THOUGH
  USUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY WHY THESE CHANGES
  OCCURRED.