SOCI 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Snow Flurry
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Soci 100 lecture 4 - language and society: where does language come from, two theories: It is hardwired in the brain - humans are born with vocal chords and the ability to express ourselves: language exists in society, and as humans develop, we imbibe it. Structure of language varies greatly across languages - even in the same country. So it"s unlikely that it is genetic (because a biological argument implies a sense of consistency across cultures. New words pop in fairly consistently, so it"s hard to see them as pre-existing; there must be something else involved. More likely it is a combination of both. Ex: there are so many different words that are used to describe snow" flurry, blizzard, hail, powder snow, frost, slush. Context affects how we lump and split. There is no right/objective way of thinking of the linkage between word and object. Hypothesis is that language shapes (influences? determines?) howe we comprehend the world.
