Tuesday, May 18, 2010

SEMANTICS

At some point in time a person will make a conscious decision:

"Will I, or will I not, try to follow the conventions of communication which are established by the language of my own particular society?"

If you want to be understood, and function as your own human instinct would have it, you must follow certain
rules - whether you are partial to them or not.

problems of lot a have and person unreasonable very a am I then, me understand will people that expect I and, on now from people to communicate to going was I how is this that decide to were I if example For.

Above is an example of me deciding to follow my own criterion for how I communicate that particular message. Obviously it is problematic. Basically, if you are a person who is difficult to understand, then there are one of two things that will ensue:

A. You are indifferent to whether or not you communicate clearly and according to the established rules of a language. Needless to say, there are consequences for having such a disposition.

B. You understand that you have a problem with your communication skills and so improve them.

If there is a certain group of people that have established their own unique means of communication (i.e. a subculture) then, collectively, they face the same two issues.


However, it's interesting to note that, "Aicordcng to a recearsh at Cgmbridae Univeisrty, it dosen't maettr in waht oedrr the letters in a wrod are. The olny inportamt thnig is taht the frist and lsat letter be in the rgiht pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can stlil raed it whtiout a prbolem. Tihs is besauce the hmuan mnid deos not raed eevry lteter by itlesf, but the wrod as a wohle."

(http://www.jtnimoy.net/itp/cambscramb/)


Not having the time or patience to make sure that you are properly understood brings forth an important question pertaining to how people communicate. Where it is important to communicate formally in a professional environment, it is not always necessary to do so in a social environment. However, a person's character can partially be judged by their demeanor- whether one is communicating virtually, or by means of one's own physicality. Naturally, every individual will have their own subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) linguistic idiosyncrasies. That is one reason why poetry can be appreciated.

Note that by writing formally, and according to the established conventions of the English language, one seems to produce a very generic quality in the way that one writes.

With that in mind one might also note that people seem to look naturally for alternatives to any one dialect; it is inherent in our nature to avoid being confined to only one way of anything. Cultural diversity is a huge factor of communication.

Right now I am communicating formally (on a social network) - expounding upon as much of an elaborate selection of vocabulary as I possibly can. Imagine if I were to communicate all of this information using the expressive attributes and mindset of, say, a gangster-rapper. Would I still have the capacity to elaborate on so many fine-tuned points?

It is important to always keep in mind that languages adapt and developed along with any culture. They always have and always will.


: ~ I

No comments:

Post a Comment