Discuss about words. Do a lot of puns. DO THEM. NOW.
On the General Awesomeness of Language
When there are lots of dudes and chicks and their children and they all speak different languages as their mother tongues, the adults start a 'pidgin' language. It's a language where you've got an utterance for 'me want buy this' but you can't really discuss Kant's categorical imperative. The children, on the other hand, make up their own language from the components of their parents' languages and it's coherent and has grammar and all! This is called a 'creole' language.
There are some creole languages in the Caribbean that emerged after white dudes from Europe colonised the area and took dudes and chicks from different places and put them together! These are the best known creole languages (I think?) since they were born relatively recently.
Some linguists (Noam Chomsky for one) argue that this implies that a human seeks language and that there is a kind of an instinct for language in humans! Pretty outrageous, Noam C!
Children learn language insanely quickly and effectively! A child at the age of 18 months knows about 20 words, but by 21 months the vocabulary grows ten times bigger! Pretty awesome, kids!
Some studies indicate that the only thing a child needs to acquire their mother tongue is to hear the language spoken normally, although so-called baby talk is important for a small child's language acquisition. Correcting a child who uses (by adult standards) poor grammar has actually no effect: the child will learn the grammar rules even if you try to hide them from them!
There are many theories about language acquisition and it's difficulties, and some dudes think children need to be corrected when they use language incorrectly. No language has ever stayed the same, though, so those dudes are pretty much on the losing side!
English, for example, consists of: Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects from the 4th-5th centuries, with influence from local Celtic languages (cymraeg, welsh, for one) and later from the infamous French! (William the Conqueror and the 1066 incident) And then some British dudes started getting all over the place (the world) and now English has words from every other language in the whole bloody world! This makes English one of the richest languages in the world, depending on your opinion of what a 'rich' language is. (Some dudes think Finnish is the richest language, but they're all Finns so who cares.)
Language is pretty awesome, everyone!
On Naughty Words
Note to mods (disclaimer): this isn't necessarily about this forum's policy. (Maybe.)
Lots of medias have a censorship policy on swear words. What are the criteria for a word that must be censored? Usually they're described as 'offensive' words, but how to define what is 'generally' offensive or whatever?
The f-word is pretty much always censored where a censoring policy exists, but what baffles me is here in AOKH how 'shit' isn't. Then again, I might want to talk about shitake mushrooms (actually it should be romanised as shiitake?), but what are your experiences on this? What do you think of censoring words? What if there's a word that happens to have F, U, C & K (respectively) in the middle? (I don't know of any.) Why can you say 'bastard' for an illegitimate child (or a generally unpleasant dude) but not the W-word for a prostitute (or a skanky woman)? If I claim I'm not a racist, can I say 'nigger'? I'm certainly allowed to do so if I'm black myself. What about 'gay' or 'faggot'? Those can be offensive to some?
Present your views.
"While I'm profaning I might as well do the whole f*cking thing."
-- Christopher Hitchens
http://soundcloud.com/adult-entertainment - Intriguing music! Made by me! (It's excellent!)
When there are lots of dudes and chicks and their children and they all speak different languages as their mother tongues, the adults start a 'pidgin' language. It's a language where you've got an utterance for 'me want buy this' but you can't really discuss Kant's categorical imperative. The children, on the other hand, make up their own language from the components of their parents' languages and it's coherent and has grammar and all! This is called a 'creole' language.
There are some creole languages in the Caribbean that emerged after white dudes from Europe colonised the area and took dudes and chicks from different places and put them together! These are the best known creole languages (I think?) since they were born relatively recently.
Some linguists (Noam Chomsky for one) argue that this implies that a human seeks language and that there is a kind of an instinct for language in humans! Pretty outrageous, Noam C!
Children learn language insanely quickly and effectively! A child at the age of 18 months knows about 20 words, but by 21 months the vocabulary grows ten times bigger! Pretty awesome, kids!
Some studies indicate that the only thing a child needs to acquire their mother tongue is to hear the language spoken normally, although so-called baby talk is important for a small child's language acquisition. Correcting a child who uses (by adult standards) poor grammar has actually no effect: the child will learn the grammar rules even if you try to hide them from them!
English, for example, consists of: Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects from the 4th-5th centuries, with influence from local Celtic languages (cymraeg, welsh, for one) and later from the infamous French! (William the Conqueror and the 1066 incident) And then some British dudes started getting all over the place (the world) and now English has words from every other language in the whole bloody world! This makes English one of the richest languages in the world, depending on your opinion of what a 'rich' language is. (Some dudes think Finnish is the richest language, but they're all Finns so who cares.)
Language is pretty awesome, everyone!
Note to mods (disclaimer): this isn't necessarily about this forum's policy. (Maybe.)
Lots of medias have a censorship policy on swear words. What are the criteria for a word that must be censored? Usually they're described as 'offensive' words, but how to define what is 'generally' offensive or whatever?
The f-word is pretty much always censored where a censoring policy exists, but what baffles me is here in AOKH how 'shit' isn't. Then again, I might want to talk about shitake mushrooms (actually it should be romanised as shiitake?), but what are your experiences on this? What do you think of censoring words? What if there's a word that happens to have F, U, C & K (respectively) in the middle? (I don't know of any.) Why can you say 'bastard' for an illegitimate child (or a generally unpleasant dude) but not the W-word for a prostitute (or a skanky woman)? If I claim I'm not a racist, can I say 'nigger'? I'm certainly allowed to do so if I'm black myself. What about 'gay' or 'faggot'? Those can be offensive to some?
Present your views.
"While I'm profaning I might as well do the whole f*cking thing."
-- Christopher Hitchens
http://soundcloud.com/adult-entertainment - Intriguing music! Made by me! (It's excellent!)
[This message has been edited by Other White Meat (edited 12-06-2008 @ 09:27 AM).]