Underestimating Language

[Cecilia E. Ford]

There's also all the fundamental functions that allow us to coordinate our talk with one another in real time.  I.e., projection of turn trajectories and points of possible completion....

-Ceci

At 02:15 PM 12/9/02 -0500, you wrote:
>This discussion of communication and diachronic detrius is interesting.
>
>As I've been reading the posts I've been thinking about how
>communication using the forms of language may convey quite a lot more
>than simply logical form or propositional content. For instance,
>language functions as a marker of group identity.
>
>You know how some forms of music are filled with flourishes - grace
>notes and the like - while other forms make striking use of silence (the
>positions and durations of the rests)?  The style of the music (like
>group identity) is conveyed by conforming to the conventions of that
>style, and in a sense the silence is just as "communicative" as the
>grace notes.
>
>Keith Johnson




Cecilia E. Ford
Professor
Department of English
600 N. Park St.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison  WI 53706    USA

ceford at facstaff.wisc.edu
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