Loosely Assembled » individualism http://0009.org/blog lurking around the margins of binary dualism Sun, 30 Oct 2011 03:24:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 The role of linguistics in the rise of individualism http://0009.org/blog/2008/06/30/the-role-of-linguistics-in-the-rise-of-individualism/ http://0009.org/blog/2008/06/30/the-role-of-linguistics-in-the-rise-of-individualism/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:29:43 +0000 fekaylius ∞]]> http://0009.org/blog/index.php/2008/06/30/the-role-of-linguistics-in-the-rise-of-individualism/
  • The Constraints of Counting, and Other Segmentation Constructs
  • Object Linguistics
    • ]]>     What does it mean that English, and other subject-verb-object languages, might have veered off-course from the dominant (hard wired? or simply ancient?) subject-object-verb model? A recent study shows that despite one’s native linguistic model, non-verbal communication will follow the subject-object-verb format, both gesturally, and diagrammatically. Basically, when people try to communicate with just their hands, they will create “sentences” following the “mice cheese eat” model even if their spoken language would follow a “mice eat cheese” format. The study seems to indicate that the English model is a variant of something more automatic. Why would this kind of change happen?

    Could this “promotion” of the verb (and the subsequent “demotion” of the subject) be tied to a cultural deficiency in empathy, our imperialist tendencies or even the rise of individualism? The latter being specifically an effect of object/subject polarization. This same polarization can also be tied to differences between Eastern and Western perceptions of “subject in context” images. The Western description being along the lines of, “a fish in a pond”, while the Eastern version would be more like, “a pond with a fish”.

    I guess this still leaves us short when it comes to unravelling Master Yoda’s verb-object-subject format, or whatever he does.

    Related posts:

    1. The Constraints of Counting, and Other Segmentation Constructs
    2. Object Linguistics

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