Re: some joint activity re contextless reading?
Ken Goodman (kgoodman who-is-at u.arizona.edu)
Sun, 28 Mar 1999 07:12:12 -0700
What I am saying is that language has the capacity to grow to serve new
functions and when people begin to use it for poetry, science, or for
business it develops forms to perform those functions- and genre to suit
the needs of the language users. In that sense no language is superior
for any purpose to any other. Culturally, some languages, such as
French, are inhibited from change by purist academies while others, such
as Japanese provide open systems for borrowing or innovating in
language. But all people and all societies have an ability they never
lose to create language to deal with new experiences and new needs. One
might thin of the Navajo "code-talkers" in WWII who used their own
language as an unbreakable code to transmit complex military messages.
Ken
--
Kenneth S. Goodman, Professor, Language, Reading & Culture
504 College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
fax 520 7456895 phone 520 6217868
These are mean times- and in the mean time
We need to Learn to Live Under Water