Bigthink - Idea Comments Feed

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:18:34 +0100

Two questions:

Wouldn't studying the unique languages created by siblings tell us more about the creation of language than common misuse of verbs by children?

Second, should we be concerned when languages become extinct?

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:23:15 +0100

Mr. Pinker I would like to thank you for your contributions. I am benefiting from them today as I make my way through your book "The Language Instinct". I am a layperson and will admit to not understanding all of it, but I do find much of it engaging and a pleasure to read. Thank you.

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 09:46:46 +0100

that's very easy!

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:32:05 +0100

"I think in science it%u2019s not reasonable to have an ambition of becoming immortal or of making a mark that%u2019s associated with you. It%u2019s more like you%u2019re really contributing something to this enormous stream of knowledge."

I totally agree with this point. It's when a group of people see far beyond themselves and see language (or any other field)as an object of science, as a contribution to future, to research, to evolution, to understanding the unknown...that you can contribute to the bigger picture, knowledge. Finding the 'anatomy' of the human mind. He's is an amazing linguist. Great video.

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:26:05 +0100

Good language learners definitely do make better use of the tools they have, as opposed to, say, memorizing more rules, as is traditionally required in most formal instruction. A really good question is why some people seem to have no trouble realizing this and accessing what is, by all experience of language teaching practitioners, clearly the most effective approach to learning a new language, while others stubbornly cling to "learning" long lists of vocabulary and memorizing grammatical nuances. What keeps people from taking the more effective method? Mysterious, and (I'm sure you can tell), not a little frustrating.

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:50:05 +0100

I just finished The Stuff of Thought yesterday, and found it very enjoyable. He is a very interesting guy, and it shed a lot of light on language and human nature (no surprise considering the subtitle).

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:26:32 +0100

I have always liked Steve and enjoyed many of his lectures but he is haired wrong. Haired men are ponytailed.....

Comment on: Re: How do you contribute?

Bigthink — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:55:45 +0100

the idea that language is made much more powerful by unique recombination of words in creative ways I find to be particularly true in learning foreign languages. people I know who are best at communicating in non-native languages frequently use their subset of known vocabulary in creative ways to get their point across - often in ways that are very funny :)