Fluent Presentations in English
At Tomato Pulp Club we had several presentations:
- The Origins of Hip Hop, by L.
- Buenos Aires, in the 1900s, by P. and
- Generative Grammar, by P.
You can take a peep at the last one, here. And if you are eager for more, visit other presentations, here.
Cheers!
N
Noam Chomsky, the creator of Universal Grammar Theory says that the grammatical principles underlying languages are innate and fixed, and the differences among the world's languages can be characterized in terms of parameter settings in the brain (such as the pro-drop parameter, which indicates whether an explicit subject is always required, as in English, or can be optionally dropped, as in Spanish), which are often likened to switches. (Hence the term principles and parameters, often given to this approach.) In this view, a child learning a language need only acquire the necessary lexical items (words, grammatical morphemes, and idioms), and determine the appropriate parameter settings, which can be done based on a few key examples.
(The similar steps followed by children all across the world when learning languages, and the fact that children make certain characteristic errors as they learn their first language, whereas other seemingly logical kinds of errors never occur are also pointed to as motivation for innateness)
Chomsky's ideas have had a strong influence on researchers of the language acquisition in children, though many researchers in this area such as Elizabeth Bates and Michael Tomasello argue very strongly against Chomsky's theories, and instead advocate emergentist or connectionist theories, explaining language with a number of general processing mechanisms in the brain that interact with the extensive and complex social environment in which language is used and learned.
And thats the point... if you don't interact with the social enviroment... you can't learn an idiom. (in fact, you can't learn anything)
To be clearer, we will change our speech from thecnical to artistic and say the same but with more interesting words:
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
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Sam sat with his eyes closed for several minutes, then said softly:
"I have many names, and none of them matter." He opened his eyes slightly then, but he did not move his head. He looked upon nothing in particular.
A thing happens once that has never happened before. Seeing it, a man looks upon reality. He cannot tell others what he has seen.
Others wish to know, however, so they question him saying, 'What is it like, this thing you have seen?' So he tries to tell them.
Perhaps he has seen the very first fire in the world.
He tells them, 'It is red, like a poppy, but through it dance other colors. It has no form, like water, flowing everywhere. It is warm, like the sun of summer, only warmer. It exists for a time upon a piece of wood, and then the wood is gone, as though it were eaten, leaving behind that which is black and can be sifted like sand. When the wood is gone, it too is gone.'
Therefore, the hearers must think reality is like a poppy, like water, like the sun, like that which eats and excretes. They think it is like to anything that they are told it is like by the man who has known it.
But they have not looked upon fire. They cannot really know it.
They can only know of it.
But fire comes again into the world, many times. More men look upon fire. After a time, fire is as common as grass and clouds and the air they breathe.
They see that, while it is like a poppy, it is not a poppy, while it is like water, it is not water, while it is like the sun, it is not the sun, and while it is like that which eats and passes wastes, it is not that which eats and passes wastes, but something different from each of these apart or all of these together.
So they look upon this new thing and they make a new word to call it. They call it 'fire.'
But, 'fire' does not matter, 'earth' and 'air' and 'water' do not matter. 'I' do not matter. No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his fellows esteem him.
He looks upon the great transformations of the world, but he does not see them as they were seen when man looked upon reality for the first time. Their names come to his lips and he smiles as he tastes them, thinking he knows them in the naming.
"If they come upon one who still has not seen it and they speak to him of fire, he does not know what they mean. So they, in turn, fall back upon telling him what fire is like.
As they do so, they know from their own experience that what they are telling him is not the truth, but only a part of it. They know that this man will never know reality from their words, though all the words in the world are theirs to use.
He must look upon the fire, smell of it, warm his hands by it, stare into its heart, or remain forever ignorant.
Well, this is the idea that you must keep in mind: you must live your language or you remain forever ignorant.
Thank you, good night, and take care!
P.
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Avram Noam Chomsky born in December 7, 1928, is an American linguist, computer scientist, philosopher and activist.
In June 2011, Chomsky was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, which cited his "unfailing courage, critical analysis of power and promotion of human rights"
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Roger Joseph Zelazny, born in May 13, 1937, was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction
He won three times the Nebula award and six the Hugo award, for example:
This Immortal, 1966 and Lord of Light, 1967
He died June 14, 1995.
