more week three

Weird how one class jells and another a period later doesn’t. And sometimes its irregular. It’s unpredictable which class will generate heat and interest and which will space out. This AM the Tannen video did not fly very well with period one but great with period two. I would have predicted the opposite, at least in this instance, so you never know.

Anyway, I want to finish up Tannen and see if there are ways to make that better. I want to get into some of the universals – about language and context, co-created meaning, negating the conduit metaphor, lifting the burden of pathology, ethnocentrism and stereotypes

Before Tannen, it would be good to take a tour of CO greatests hits

- Boxing Plato’s Shadow – Ancient Athenian Greece – created western civilization, including democracy (one person, one vote; marketplace of ideas), Plato was concerned about oral communication (not Socratic Dialogues, use of logic) in groups, argued against the mob, in the Republic wanted society to be ruled by the elite, Philosopher King, Socrates was killed – Plato found group communication too emotional (today we call this hype, spin, BS, propaganda) This belief, that talk is cheap persists to this day.

Do words matter? Sticks and Stones may break my bones…(attack of symbols, American Flag, Confederate Flag, Nazi sign, Twin Towers) insult someone’s mother

- Sapir-Whorf Theory (chicken or egg) – which came first = language or thought (linguistic determinism) people with more words for color see more colors, Suicides rate in Philippines without word for sad or depressed, Eskimos and snow, generally this theory is not trued, just because a word does not exist doesn’t mean it can’t be perceived, 1) the language use tells us more about a culture, some cultures do not have a word for virgin, US usage for money and for women 2) words create efficiency – harder to talk about something with the words (emoticons) allows you to manipulate others perceptions, jargoning creates efficiency 3) new words are constantly evolving adding new concepts that can influence behavior – date rape, road rage, designated driver

- Colorless Green Ideas – Chomsky Syntactic Structures 1957 – the ability to use language is hardwired, to understand sequence, universal grammar (noun or actor, verb or action, object and modifiers) sentence is a complete thought, this is an extreme example, say it backwards it is even more nonsensical, we deduct new words and ideas by context (association) pathology and pathologize example (pathological liar, psychopath, negative interpretation of personality qualities), lifting the burden of pathology

- And perhaps Tragedy of the Commons