The Unfolding of Language by Sophia Mehta https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage en-us 2018-11-16 14:37:44 UTC 2021-01-26 21:36:51 UTC hello@padlet.com Short Bio and Why I chose this book 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305270630 Typically, I prefer fiction to nonfiction, but a few years ago I read Through the Language Glass by Guy Deutscher, and I loved it. I love art, so the book appealed to me because it discussed color and whether language impacts our perception of color. I found the author to be humorous and engaging, so when I learned that we would be reading a nonfiction book of our own choosing for class, I immediately checked to see if he had written anything else.  The Unfolding of Language appealed to me because my family, particularly my mother and I, love etymology which is one of the topics this book delves into.


]]> 2018-11-16 14:45:38 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305270630 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305271908 2018-11-16 14:47:36 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305271908 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305272276 2018-11-16 14:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305272276 New Vocabulary (1-30) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305282721 "An even more more striking example of the discrepancy between the ordering  rules of the two languages is provided by the sesquipedalian Turkish word from the previous chapter sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz" (24).

sesquipedalian (adjective):
having many syllables

Textbooks tend to use many challenging and sesquipedalian words rather than shorter, simpler ones.

]]> 2018-11-16 15:04:57 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305282721 Reading Schedule 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305608660 11/30 - page 120
12/7 - page 180
12/16 - page 274]]> 2018-11-18 03:01:08 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/305608660 Quotation/Passage (1-30) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/307826929 "Despite remarkable advances in neurology, scientists are still very far from observing  directly how any how any piece of abstract information such as a rule of grammar might be coded in the brain either as 'hardware' (prewired) or 'software' (what is learnt)" (17).

One of the things I appreciate most about this author, Guy Deutscher, is that he uses analogies throughout his writing to make difficult concepts understandable to the average reader. His comparison of the brain to a computer easily gets his point across without delving into a bunch of scientific language. His simple phrasing enabled me to appreciate question he posed: Is grammar instinctual or learned?  I wish we weren't quite so "far away" from an answer so I could know now.]]> 2018-11-26 15:29:29 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/307826929 New Vocabulary (31-60) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/308824647 "The quarrelsome seal that was eyeing a disenchanted but rather attractive fish has picked a fight with a phlegmatic walrus" (31).

phlegmatic (adjective): having or showing a slow and stolid temperament

The executioner had a phlegmatic expression as he chopped off the traitor's head.]]> 2018-11-28 15:10:57 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/308824647 Quotation/Passage (31-60) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309542488 "Ye knowe eek that in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden pris, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
And sped as wel in love as men now do.
(eek=also) (tho=then) (pris=value) (nyce=odd) (hem=then) (spedde=succeed)" (49).

I found it very interesting that even in the 1400s people were aware of how quickly languages change and the fact that future generations will not be able to understand the English of the past. It's crazy to think that 600 years from now it will be as difficult for them to read our time period's English as it is for us to read the above passage.]]> 2018-11-29 20:27:07 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309542488 New Vocabulary (61-90) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309553028 "Whether apocryphal or not, the implications of this story are clear" (64).

apocryphal (adjective): of doubtful authenticity

The apocryphal document was covered in food stains and was lacking an official seal.
]]> 2018-11-29 20:51:02 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309553028 Quotation/Passage (61-90) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309553190 "Originally the verb 'like' was not a weaker synonym for love, but rather meant 'to please' or 'to be pleasing', so the phrase 'he liketh me' meant 'he is pleasing to me' or in the modern sense of 'like': 'I like him'" (64).

This fact is fascinating to me because in Spanish "me gusta" is used to say "I like" but it actually means "it pleases me". Given that both languages share common roots, it makes sense that at one point the verbs were used in the same way, but it does beg the question: Why did one language's use of the verb change while the other's remained the same? What happened differently in the two countries to cause this contrast?]]> 2018-11-29 20:51:24 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309553190 New Vocabulary (91-120) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309621702 "Still, even this more specific suggestion didn't bring the 'laryngeal theory' into the mainstream linguistics, since there was no evidence for any laryngeal sounds in even one of the attested daughter languages of Proto-Indo-European" (106).

laryngeal (adjective):  produced by or with constriction of the larynx

When communicating, humans produce many laryngeal sounds which combine to form words and phrases.]]> 2018-11-30 02:11:51 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309621702 Quotation/Passage (91-120) Week of 11/30 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309636231 "When one goes to a shop or supermarket in Britain these days, one is often asked something like 'would you like a bag, at all?' The phrase ['at all'] has become so common, in fact, that many people just don't notice it... We are witnessing a change in the making, where what started out as an emphatic intensifier... is now going down the path of attrition, losing that emphasis, and becoming just a kind of extended question marker" (99).

I haven't noticed this change in usage of the phase "at all".  I wonder if that is because it is predominantly used in British English in this manner.  If so, will the phrase lose its initial meaning and significance in British English but retain the original meaning in American English?]]> 2018-11-30 03:54:18 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/309636231 New Vocabulary (121-150) Week of 12/3 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/311633299 "Sarah was thrilled to discover that the assessment board had decided to make her barmy rival redundant, after she suggested that he had made sarcastic insinuations about his employers" (124).

barmy (adjective): mad or crazy; extremely foolish.

Teenage boys have a reputation for being extremely barmy, as they have a tendency to get themselves into all sorts of trouble.]]> 2018-12-05 23:34:16 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/311633299 Quotation/Passage (121-150) Week of 12/3 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/311633410 "There is no known language where spacial terms are not also used to describe temporal relations.  Language thus demonstrates that long before physicists, common intuition had already spotted the relation between space and time" (134).

This is a really interesting idea. I wonder what happened to link these two concepts together and what our language would look like if they were separate. Was there a common ancestor language before Proto-Indo-European that initially linked the two and then all the resulting languages kept the trait? But if that were the case, surely a few languages would have lost the characteristic by now. Furthermore, I'd be curious to know if people were aware to some extent that the concepts were connected before Einstein had theorized it. ]]> 2018-12-05 23:35:10 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/311633410 New Vocabulary (151-180) Week of 12/3 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312266557 "Dr de Troy, you have taken us on a fascinating historical perambulation, and told a touching tale of gentle changes in meaning" (151).

perambulation (noun): a walk; an after-dinner stroll or a meander through the zoo

The young couple enjoyed their perambulations around the garden.]]> 2018-12-07 15:24:11 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312266557 Quotation/Passage (151-180) Week of 12/3 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312267175 "Dr de Troy, I am sure no one here present would wish to dispute that your examples are impressive. And I, for one, am certainly beginning to warm to your theory that destruction can create complex new structures.  Still..." (163).

I really like the way the author, Guy, Deutscher, addresses the counterarguments to the ideas posed in this chapter. Rather than discussing them in the traditional manner, Deutscher creates a fake dialogue and then proceeds to construct an entire conversations 
in which the two characters debate over Deutscher's assertions.]]> 2018-12-07 15:25:13 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312267175 New Vocabulary (181-210) Week of 12/10 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312459898 "In the table above, I still included the ancient stem with its original vowels, but in some sense, this is already an anachronism" (205).

anachronism (noun): an error in chronology; the state or condition of being chronologically out of place

The new history textbook did not sell well, as it contained many anachronisms]]> 2018-12-08 03:33:27 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312459898 Quotation/Passage (181-210) Week of 12/10 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312462281 "Hebrew was spoken by the Judeans and Israelites until the last few centuries BC, when it was displaced by Aramaic, but it survived as the religious and literary language of the Jews, and it was revived in the twentieth century as the language of modern Israel" (181).

It's really interesting that Hebrew was only used as as a literary and religious language for thousands of years before being revived as a widely spoken language. I wonder what inspired this revival. Could this happen with other languages that are no longer commonly spoken? Could a language that has been dying for a very long time in our minds return to common usage?]]> 2018-12-08 04:24:22 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/312462281 Quotation/Passage (211-240) Week of 12/10 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/314534675 "(Incidentally, for reasons that will become clear later on, I will not use the syntactic labels 'noun' and 'verb' when describing our primitive language, and for the time being, I will only make the division based on meaning, between 'thing-words' and 'action-words')" (214).

One habit of Deutscher is using parenthetical to introduce an intriguing topic only to say that he will explain it later on. This style of writing keeps the reader engaged in the book. While Deutscher frequently refers back to sections of his book by chapter or page number, he refers to future sections more vaguely so that the reader will have to read the entire book in order to locate the information they desire.]]> 2018-12-14 04:03:32 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/314534675 New Vocabulary (211-240) Week of 12/10 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/315047840 "In the mammoth story, for instance, the sentence 'father spear throw' was uttered in order to extol the deeds of the father, not to describe the destiny of the spear" (218).

extol (verb): to praise highly; to glorify

The coach extolled the actions of their star athlete after their winning shot earned the team the title of State Champions.]]> 2018-12-17 03:52:54 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/315047840 Quotation/Passage (241-274) Week of 12/10 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/315049474 "The element of invention thus consists of spotting a coincidental pattern such as 'fork' (which just so happens to sound like 'four+k") or 'grotty' (which sounds like 'grot+y'), presuming it must be there for some good reason, and accordingly creating new forms such as 'threek' and 'grot'" (261).

I appreciated the authors choice of using both an example that has actually occurred and an example that has not occurred yet, or rather has not become mainstream or considered correct yet. In doing so, Deutscher emphasizes that it is the nature of language to change and that these changes tend not to come from the grand events we expect, but rather mundane ones instead.]]> 2018-12-17 04:17:58 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/315049474 New Vocabulary (241-274) Week of 12/10 20mehtas https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/315050701 "This question poses a much more difficult challenge than understanding the conversions in the other direction, but for some reason, linguists have so far neglected to take up this challenge, and thus the evolution of the grammatical mechanisms of nominalization still remain largely uncharted territory" (248)

nominalization (noun): the process or result of forming a noun or noun phrase from a clause or a verb

Although nominalization occurs quite frequently, the general public tends to ignore it while linguists find it fascinating.]]> 2018-12-17 04:34:52 UTC https://padlet.com/20mehtas/TheUnfoldingOfLanguage/wish/315050701