On Thu, 22 Jun 2000, Andy Blunden wrote:
>
> Thirdly, there is a lot to be said from beginning our effort to understand
> the human condition from what is "correct" or "normal" or "true", - from
> what is "objectively founded" - rather than from "pathology" or
> "defectology" as LSV calls it.
I always interpreted the study of "defectology" as a way to get at
the (hate the word, ugh!) "normal". There is something about the
seamlessness of everyday forms of organization that make the processes and
inner workings very difficult to perceive unless there is a breakdown of
some kind or unless you are able to detach yourself from this immersedness
and view your everyday "reality" from the outside so to speak.
I'm speaking with reference to what happens with respect to language, but
my guess would be that this can be extrapolated to almost all social
situations.
With respect to language, situations of break-down or "imperfect"
(ugh!) use allow one all of a sudden to become aware of details of
organization that would be totally invisble otherwise, because of the
seamless working of the "normal" system. That's why studying the language
development processes of young children or language use by foreigners
(where the grammatical system is not in place yet, or not fully
constructed) and also language system break-downs as in aphasia, are
useful because they allow the inner workings of the system to become
visible.
Coming to a foreign language or culture, or returning to your own after
having had contact with another, also allow you to get a glimpse of
inner-working mechanisms that were transparent and invisble before. You
then question the taken for granted, that's the way it is aspects of your
language or your culture, and the "normal" in normality.
As I said, my comments come from my work with language (especially
repair mechanisms in language use) and were sparked by the reference to
LSV's interest in "defectology" or "pathology". Do these observations
transfer easily to other aspects?
Rosa
Rosa Graciela Montes
Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, MEXICO
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jul 01 2000 - 01:00:40 PDT