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METHODS AND TOOLS

Knowledge and Language:

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Knowledge Framework: Methods and tools:

  • How we use language. Consider figurative language, names and labels, classification systems, persuasion and manipulation, and more.
  • Language itself is also a tool, used in all other disciplines.

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Problematic Meaning

Denotation: the literal meaning of a word

Connotation: the ideas and associations a word evokes in addition to its literal meaning

  • Adding in the WOKs of emotion, imagination

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  • Cheap vs. inexpensive
  • Politician vs. statesman
  • Vagrants vs. homeless
  • Homeless vs. person experiencing homelessness

SO: Examples of potential problems with language?

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  • Can often vary by culture

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  • Vagueness: lack of preciseness
    • IMAGINE a person who is bald or balding

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Problematic Meaning, Cont.

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  • Ambiguity: when something can reasonably be interpreted in more than one way
  • Sometimes can veil intentions or mislead:

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  • The woman cannot bear children.
  • Flying planes can be dangerous.
  • Visiting relatives can be boring.

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  • It would be great if you could pass the salt.
  • Would you like to come up for a drink?
  • I am opposed to cuts to Social Security which will weaken the system overall.

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Problematic Meaning, Cont.

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  • Euphemism: Replacing a word or phrase with another that is more mild, vague, or indirect in order to avoid offense or be more agreeable
  • Different from political correctness: a term used, USUALLY BY DETRACTORS, to describe language that is meant to avoid offense or disadvantage to certain members of society
    • “Political correctness” thus has a negative connotation
    • Instead, inclusive language is a more neutral term

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  • Dang! Jeepers! Shoot! etc.
  • I need to use the restroom.
  • The company had to let people go.

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KQ: What are the implications if we do not produce knowledge in a language that respects people’s preferred modes of self- identification?

Problematic Meaning, Cont.

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  • Metaphor: a figure of speech where a word or phrase is applied to a situation where it is not literally applicable
  • Literary use as well as explanatory use

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  • She has a brilliant mind.
  • No man is an island.
  • My brother is a butcher vs. My dentist is a butcher.

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  • Can be useful in understanding-- but also overly simplistic or even misleading
  • The atom as a solar system
  • A country’s economic system as a home budget
  • A human personality as a blank slate (tabula rasa)

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Problematic Meaning, Cont.

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  • Idioms: Colloquial expressions whose figurative meaning cannot be deciphered from the literal meaning

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Problematic Meaning, Cont.

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And all these problems are within one language!

What about translation?

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  • Problem of word-for-word vs. spirit of the text
  • Please vs. por favor vs. s'il vous plaît
  • AI translation of a Bible verse: “The vodka is agreeable, but the meat is rotten.”
  • What cultural knowledge is lost or untranslatable?

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  • What about the interpretation of the translator?
  • What literary/artistic merit is lost?