Languages are abstractions — they pretend to actually exist, but in reality they are more like amorphous relationships between the language’s speakers (or users). When one person uses a word and another person interprets that word’s meaning, there is no guarantee of absolute congruency — meanings can be laden with all sorts of connotations, there… Continue reading Linguistic Empathy & Community Boundaries
Tag: natural language
Community — Compared to What?
There’s a sort of “pop jazz” song named “Compared to What?” and that’s the tune I have sort of stuck in my head as I am having these thoughts… — which thoughts? When we talk about community, it usually creates an intellectual divide between “Us and Them”, ingroups and outgroups. Yet these groups are not… Continue reading Community — Compared to What?
Literacy = ! { an on-off switch }
Literacy is not an “on / off” switch. That statement seems quite simple and straightforward, but it can be written in a variety of ways … and what’s even more astonishing is: while the proposition itself seems quite obvious (at least if you spend at least a little longer than a second to think about… Continue reading Literacy = ! { an on-off switch }
Infinity vs URL
How many specks of dust are there in the universe? Very very many. Is each speck of dust unique? Perhaps, maybe, I don’t know. Vast is a quite short word, yet it spans such breadth, so many cases, across the universe. This little four-letter word almost extends beyond the outer reaches of human intellect itself.… Continue reading Infinity vs URL
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