Story Lab: Language
Link to Playlist
How did English evolve?
I love the idea that history is intrinsically tied up in not only the meaning of the words we use but the connotations they elicit, how you can feel something to be the case before you formally learn it. The example given was the mental image of a "hearty welcome" vs a "cordial reception" ; while these phrases are definitionally nearly synonymous, the first you can feel came from the peasants, while the second came from the more sophisticated French upper-class (see images below):
Verb Tenses
>3 because of "verb aspect"
-ex: continuous, perfect, perfect progressive, simple (12 possibilities in English)
- key insight- everything takes place in a moment
"Are the variations in language different ways of describing the same fundamental reality or do they reflect different ways of thinking about the world?"
Where do new words come from?
>170k in English
Ways to get new words (often needed for describing new things)
-borrow from other languages (naive)
-use classical languages to build a new concept (clone)
-combine existing words (airport, starfish, spork, internet)
-definitions evolve through culture, antonyms happen through irony
-what makes it stick? Right combo of useful and catchy
-words that describe themselves: autological
;
-clarify ideas in a sentence w/too many commas
-compartmentalize lists
-link independent clauses
-can replace conjunctions for variety or condensing
-clarity, force, style
'
-possession
-contraction
-some debate Robinsons'(s), Lucas'(s) --stylistic choice, just be consistent
^ Dang, I was hoping for a definitive answer on that, because that's something I never know which way it should fall, because sometimes the extra s feels right and sometimes it doesn't.
Does Grammar matter?
-Grammar is "A set of patterns for how words are put together to form phrases or clauses, whether spoken or in writing"
-ex- SVO vs SOV
-not many linguistic universals
-prescriptivism vs descriptivism (set of rules vs needing adaptation and tracking how people use it)
Link to Playlist
How did English evolve?
I love the idea that history is intrinsically tied up in not only the meaning of the words we use but the connotations they elicit, how you can feel something to be the case before you formally learn it. The example given was the mental image of a "hearty welcome" vs a "cordial reception" ; while these phrases are definitionally nearly synonymous, the first you can feel came from the peasants, while the second came from the more sophisticated French upper-class (see images below):
 |
| Examples of a "hearty welcome" (top) vs a "cordial reception" (bottom) Screenshots taken from this video. |
Verb Tenses
>3 because of "verb aspect"
-ex: continuous, perfect, perfect progressive, simple (12 possibilities in English)
- key insight- everything takes place in a moment
"Are the variations in language different ways of describing the same fundamental reality or do they reflect different ways of thinking about the world?"
Where do new words come from?
>170k in English
Ways to get new words (often needed for describing new things)
-borrow from other languages (naive)
-use classical languages to build a new concept (clone)
-combine existing words (airport, starfish, spork, internet)
-definitions evolve through culture, antonyms happen through irony
-what makes it stick? Right combo of useful and catchy
-words that describe themselves: autological
;
-clarify ideas in a sentence w/too many commas
-compartmentalize lists
-link independent clauses
-can replace conjunctions for variety or condensing
-clarity, force, style
'
-possession
-contraction
-some debate Robinsons'(s), Lucas'(s) --stylistic choice, just be consistent
^ Dang, I was hoping for a definitive answer on that, because that's something I never know which way it should fall, because sometimes the extra s feels right and sometimes it doesn't.
Does Grammar matter?
-Grammar is "A set of patterns for how words are put together to form phrases or clauses, whether spoken or in writing"
-ex- SVO vs SOV
-not many linguistic universals
-prescriptivism vs descriptivism (set of rules vs needing adaptation and tracking how people use it)
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