COM 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ron Ziegler, Watergate Scandal, Benjamin Lee Whorf
Document Summary
Language is not just for humans- many animals communicate their thoughts as well. Kids play language before they can talk to imitate their surroundings. Language can clarify or obscure (lie), influence perception, and set parameters of thought: euphemism are used to soften language. Doublespeak: cars used to conceal the true meaning of a word: ron ziegler: the youngest person to be presidential press secretary very good at doublespeak, an award was named after him. During the watergate scandal, he said this the operative statement. Doubletalk: words that sound like real words, but aren"t real. Glottology: study of the origin of language: no original languages exist: all languages have been contaminated by other languages. Language is not static- languages are always changing (slang) More than 7,100 languages are used worldwide, with most being small tribal languages: the most widely spoken language is mandarin chinese, and the second most spoken is spanish.
