Blog 6 - What is Semantics?

Blog 6 - Semantics Explained

What is Semantics?

Above is a link for a document written by Richmond H. Thomason. This article, or document as he calls it when you read through the entry  is all about semantic language, something talked about in Chapter 5 of our textbook.  Thomason defines semantics as the the study of the meaning of linguistic expressions. Arrangement of words plays a large role in semantic language. Semantic rules are not the same across all languages, but all languages have semantics.

He also talks about something that is more and more prevalent in our society today: something called natural-language semantics. Basically this has to do with computers and the language they use and the language we use. The majority of the population today knows that computers operate in written code and have little to no knowledge of this code, so computers and programs have a natural language interface that allows us to type or drag and drop things exactly as we want them without dealing with the artificial language of computers. Because of the ambiguity of our languages, this natural language interface is becoming a very studied part of human and computer interaction.

I thought this article was very interesting and covered a lot of material from chapter 5. I also liked that it explained some things in a different way than the book. It helped me with some understanding, so I thought it would be the perfect thing to talk about if some other people were struggling with any of the covered concepts.

Blog 5

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

I found this article on the NY Times website, and picked it because the title intrigued me to start with. It starts off by talking about an article that was published 70 years ago that stated that your native language limited the capacities in which you can think. Ever since the publishing of that article, people have been sensationalizing the topic and have continued to expound on this until it was decided that the idea was ridiculous. Now, the subject has been revived and new research has come to light to open up the topic once again.

I thought the most interesting thing is that just the structure of language has limitations that it imposes on how we think about what we say and hear. I agree with the article that you can't really help how you think if your native language has groomed you to assign genders to objects, etc. I do want to learn more about the topic. What makes English speakers think the way they do, and how is that different from someone speaking German or Italian? The topic applies to the whole world because it sites the differences we have in our thought and speech patterns are inherent depending on the language we learned as children.

Blog 4 - Nonverbal Language

    


     This is a shorter summary video of the full presentation by Amy Cuddy, so if you're interested in seeing the whole thing, look it up. I picked this video because I think nonverbal or body language is certainly a form of language and it also affects the way we behave and even the way we perceive others. What I found the most interesting is that our body language can cause chemical changes in the body that can make us feel a certain way. I thought the information was really cool. I don't know if this is true, simply because I haven't ever thought to pose a certain way to improve my attitude or behavior but it will certainly be something I think about after seeing this lecture. I know I'm going to watch the full lecture at my first opportunity to learn more, because I found that the video had fresh information in it that I had not heard before. If everyone posed a certain way to elevate their mood, the world might be a happier place, who knows?