This blog entry is about maxims of conversation, sometimes called Grice's maxims, after the person who made the term. A conversational maxim is a rule that a speaker is assumed to follow. There are 4 maxims of conversation. This article states what the maxims are, and I will go more in depth on them here.
https://www.usingenglish.com/articles/grices-conversational-maxims.html
1: Maxim of quantity. Say as much information as needed. Don't say more or less. When Person A asks a question such as "What are you doing?" and Person B says "something", Person B has gone against this maxim by saying too little information. If Person B says "I am reading a book so i can know all of the information that i need to know in order to pass the class and then in turn get a good job" now he has gone against the maxim by giving too much info. In order to follow this maxim, Person B would have had to say "I am reading a book."
2: Maxim of Relevance. This maxim requires that a person should be relevant. If Person A asks "What are you doing tonight?" and Person B says "I am going to fly to Chicago next week" Person B has violated this maxim by saying something completely irrelevant to what the other person has asked. To follow this maxim, Person B would have had to have said something along the lines of "I am going to do homework tonight."
3: Maxim of Manner. This maxim requires the person to be brief and orderly, and to avoid ambiguity and obscurity. This one is hard to make a specific example of, due to what it is. A general example though, would be if Person A said something to Person B, and Person B started spouting out incoherent nonsense for an extended period. Person B would be breaking the rules of this maxim because it wouldn't be short or orderly. It also would border obscurity.
4: Maxim of Quality. This one requires truthfulness. This one can be as simple as if Person B robbed a store. Person A asked if Person B did it, and Person B says no. Person B is being untruthful and therefore breaking not only the law, but the rule of this maxim.
Overall, I think that Grice's maxims are pretty interesting, and it would be very useful if we could learn to fully understand them all.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Blog 5:
Upon searching through youtube, I found this strange little video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY . It is titled How English sounds to non-English speakers. The title got my interest. I watched the video, and I was slightly confused by it. I knew what the concept of the video was, but my mind was trying to process something that cant be processed. Some of what was said was English, but the words were not coherently used. Some parts were just jibberish, having no meaning at all. Overall, the video was unintelligible. But I do see how someone could mistake it for English, if they don't know the language.
The video does make me think about how some people "make fun" of other languages by making sounds that sound similar to something in that language. Maybe this is how someone would do that for English. The people in the video do seem to be speaking slightly fast too. That could be because of the same reason other languages we don't know often sound fast. When speaking, we don't generally put breaks between words. In languages we know, our mind knows the breaks, so it isn't hard for us to understand. However, in languages we don't know, we are unsure of where one word starts and another ends. Often, it will seem to be spoken really fast. That would be why someone learning English may ask you to slow down when talking. Its not because you are talking fast, its because they aren't able to separate the words very well yet.
The video does make me think about how some people "make fun" of other languages by making sounds that sound similar to something in that language. Maybe this is how someone would do that for English. The people in the video do seem to be speaking slightly fast too. That could be because of the same reason other languages we don't know often sound fast. When speaking, we don't generally put breaks between words. In languages we know, our mind knows the breaks, so it isn't hard for us to understand. However, in languages we don't know, we are unsure of where one word starts and another ends. Often, it will seem to be spoken really fast. That would be why someone learning English may ask you to slow down when talking. Its not because you are talking fast, its because they aren't able to separate the words very well yet.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Blog 4: Similarities of some languages.
The idea for this blog entry came from reading some of the comments that people have left me. I was going to do a nice big explanation about Cantonese Chinese vs Mandarin Chinese, but then I found this video which explains it very well in my opinion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73btaVo868
Just in case you cant watch the video for whatever reason, I will briefly explain it now. Mandarin and Cantonese are both different types of Chinese. They are both mutually unintelligible to an extent. Spoken Mandarin and Cantonese are different, so one wouldn't be able to understand the speech of the other. Its different when it comes to writing though. They both use the same writing system. However, the sentence structure is different. A person who knows Mandarin would recognize the characters in written Cantonese, but be unable to read the sentence. A person who knows Cantonese would be able to read the Mandarin though. The Cantonese speakers can rearrange their words into different orders, therefore making it so they could communicate with a Mandarin speaker through writing, but the pronunciation would still be different, so even with the rearrangement. They wouldn't understand each others speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm7mCmncbvA
This video shows some differences of Taiwanese vs Mandarin. I don't really know much about Taiwanese, except that it uses the same writing system as Mandarin and Cantonese. I just thought it was interesting seeing some differences between the two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCuZGYEdZ4Y
This video is about the mutual intelligibility of Thai and Laos languages. I originally though that the writing systems were the same, but the speaking systems were different. It seems I was wrong. It is actually the other way around. I will have to do some more studying on these two languages before I say any more about them, but due to time constraints, I probably wont be able to do so before this blog is due. Once I am able to do the research, I will post a comment on this entry explaining my findings.
Just in case you cant watch the video for whatever reason, I will briefly explain it now. Mandarin and Cantonese are both different types of Chinese. They are both mutually unintelligible to an extent. Spoken Mandarin and Cantonese are different, so one wouldn't be able to understand the speech of the other. Its different when it comes to writing though. They both use the same writing system. However, the sentence structure is different. A person who knows Mandarin would recognize the characters in written Cantonese, but be unable to read the sentence. A person who knows Cantonese would be able to read the Mandarin though. The Cantonese speakers can rearrange their words into different orders, therefore making it so they could communicate with a Mandarin speaker through writing, but the pronunciation would still be different, so even with the rearrangement. They wouldn't understand each others speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm7mCmncbvA
This video shows some differences of Taiwanese vs Mandarin. I don't really know much about Taiwanese, except that it uses the same writing system as Mandarin and Cantonese. I just thought it was interesting seeing some differences between the two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCuZGYEdZ4Y
This video is about the mutual intelligibility of Thai and Laos languages. I originally though that the writing systems were the same, but the speaking systems were different. It seems I was wrong. It is actually the other way around. I will have to do some more studying on these two languages before I say any more about them, but due to time constraints, I probably wont be able to do so before this blog is due. Once I am able to do the research, I will post a comment on this entry explaining my findings.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Blog 3:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/07/the-contested-title-of-the-person-who-speaks-the-most-languages/
I found this article by searching what the most languages a single person has ever spoken was. I was expecting around 30 or so. Instead, what I found was that a few people may be able to speak nearly twice that! I planned to be able to speak around 10 or so throughout my life, thinking that there simply wouldn't be time for more, but seeing this, maybe I will be able to do more.
The article does raise an interesting question though. At what point are you considered being able to speak the language? If being considered to speak a language only requires knowing some words or phrases, Then that would mean that I can speak over a dozen already. Maybe it requires being able to do basic or advanced conversation? The way I see it, there are different levels of it. 1: There is just knowing words and phrases. 2: Only having studied it. 3: Being proficient. 4: Being able to speak it. 5: Fluent.
In my opinion, being able to speak a language requires the ability to hold semi-advanced conversations for extended lengths of time over many different subjects. With that definition, I am able to speak only one language, English. I am proficient in Spanish and Japanese, being able to hold basic to intermediate conversations over some subjects. With Russian, Vietnamese, and Mandarin Chinese, I have only studied them some, being able to read and somewhat write and pronounce them, but not necessarily knowing what I am reading or saying. With Thai and Korean, I only know a few words and phrases and I am still learning their writing systems.
What would you consider as being able to speak a language?
I found this article by searching what the most languages a single person has ever spoken was. I was expecting around 30 or so. Instead, what I found was that a few people may be able to speak nearly twice that! I planned to be able to speak around 10 or so throughout my life, thinking that there simply wouldn't be time for more, but seeing this, maybe I will be able to do more.
The article does raise an interesting question though. At what point are you considered being able to speak the language? If being considered to speak a language only requires knowing some words or phrases, Then that would mean that I can speak over a dozen already. Maybe it requires being able to do basic or advanced conversation? The way I see it, there are different levels of it. 1: There is just knowing words and phrases. 2: Only having studied it. 3: Being proficient. 4: Being able to speak it. 5: Fluent.
In my opinion, being able to speak a language requires the ability to hold semi-advanced conversations for extended lengths of time over many different subjects. With that definition, I am able to speak only one language, English. I am proficient in Spanish and Japanese, being able to hold basic to intermediate conversations over some subjects. With Russian, Vietnamese, and Mandarin Chinese, I have only studied them some, being able to read and somewhat write and pronounce them, but not necessarily knowing what I am reading or saying. With Thai and Korean, I only know a few words and phrases and I am still learning their writing systems.
What would you consider as being able to speak a language?
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