Just starting to think about language a little bit about Language
Ok, I'm going to rant for a second. I HATE MY HUMANITY COURSE.
The professor is intelligent and organized. The Work is changeling as well as though provoking. When I sit in class, I know that having a side conversation would be a major mistake, because the lectures are so filled with content. Although I have very little access to the professor because of the class size, he still manages to answer my emails with helpful advice or information.
NOW
The reading would truly be enjoyable as well, except for one small aspect. EVERY OTHER WORD is MADE UP. They just use complex English words that usually have ambiguous definitions adding "izm", or "istic" to the end, making it useless without a humanities dictionary included in the glossary. For instance, what the heck is 'ethnocentricizm'? (Microsoft Word says that’s spelled wrong, but it doesn't have any suggestions either. Hmm…) What about 'cultural materialism," or possibly the ergonomic 'culturally relative humanistic determinism'? Then we've got the complete other side of the spectrum. Some words would seem to have self explanatory meanings, but somehow (through the magic of anthropology professors I suppose) define entirely ambiguous genres of thought like 'Culture'. According to many anthropologists, ‘culture’ can never be clearly defined by any standards because every aspect of the way an individual thinks and expresses those thoughts and the feedback from those actions in the world around them is implemented in culture. Therefore, to understand culture, you'd have to fully understand every aspect of everything. Or how about this: 'intelligent design creationism'. How about 'God'?
Despite my personal problems with the class, we have been looking at some pretty interesting things lately, and they’ve raised some questions in my mind regarding language. So Ill be considering those a little more in depth as time goes on.
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I,too, have a few bones to pick with all the "isms". But that's the cool thing about language. In some ways, we're getting more efficient by using words like "ethnocentrism" to express the idea that we all make decisions and have beliefs about the world based on our ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and those influences can make us assume certain things that may be incorrect.
ReplyDeleteOnce you get used to the jargon, it saves time. Keep on pluggin' away at it.