Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Language as a window into human nature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU

Summarising key points:
  • Indirect speech act- Veil our intentions in innuendo, hoping for our reader to read in between the lines e.g  "Would you like to come up and see my etchings?" is a sexual innuendo.
  • Language has to do two things:
  • 1.  It's got to convey some content as a bribe, command or proposition.
  • 2. It's got to negotiate a relationship type.
  • Dominance- Inherited from the dominance hierarchies/ Kin selection and mutualism
  • Communality- share and share alike. Would be classed as appropriate e.g. among friends.
  • Reciprocity- You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours/ business like (tit for tat). Would be classed as appropriate e.g. a restaurant.
  • What you can get away with in a communality relationship, you can't get away with in a dominance relationship.
  • A divergent understanding can lead to awkwardness.
  • An obvious innuendo still seems more comfortable than a direct overture.
  • Individual knowledge = A knows x and B knows x 
  • Mutual knowledge = A knows that B knows x and A knows that B knows A knows x /B knows that A knows x and B knows that A knows that B knows x.
  • 'The Emperor's new clothes' is a story about mutual knowledge. Everyone knows that everyone knows that everyone knows. It gives them 'collective power' to challenge the dominance of the Emperor.
  • Innuendos provide individual knowledge.
  • Direct speech provides mutual knowledge.

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