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"cup ment cup, ball ment ball, you ment you and he ment he."

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I've been watching a film on channel 1 where they had to cross a langague barrier.. Now how did talk begin.. Who said the firsts words who decided what ment what? who decided that cup ment cup, ball ment ball, you ment you and he ment he.

I'm sorry if I don't make sence but it's just struck me someone must've started words.. spoke the first words made the first hints of comunications. obviously it didn't happen over night but.. how..

(sorry if you find this thread stupid but I've been thinking of alot of diffrent views lately)

It's weird how we've developed so many complex forms of comunications, I find it how magnificent how we managaed to become civalised but I want to understand how we did.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I never am able to work that out. Just think how you would name something if you found it though. Nowadays we have more complex names so if we found a cow on mars it would be a martian bovine :p or something :confused:. In Latin probably.

    But if you found a strange shaped object that was a strange colour, you just give it a name. Then when you show it to your friends you say 'thats a ........' I don't think there was any real professional way they made it up.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Re: "cup ment cup, ball ment ball, you ment you and he ment he."
    Originally posted by Hellfire
    I've been watching a film on channel 1 where they had to cross a langague barrier.. Now how did talk begin.. Who said the firsts words who decided what ment what? who decided that cup ment cup, ball ment ball, you ment you and he ment he.

    I sometimes wonder that. It was probably the Ancient Cavemen or something :confused:

    I started watching that film, but Weir's Way was on the other side :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Re: Re: "cup ment cup, ball ment ball, you ment you and he ment he."
    Originally posted by Bri-namite
    I sometimes wonder that. It was probably the Ancient Cavemen or something :confused:

    I started watching that film, but Weir's Way was on the other side :thumb:

    The film was Amistad, very power.. lovely moving film (made me cry)

    And.. Woa.. I'm not the only one who thinks that:)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ahhhh been done before:( I thought it was an original stupid idea by me.. Least I'm not the only stupid one.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Hellfire
    Least I'm not the only stupid one.

    wana bet? :p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Cute_Baby_Bear
    wana bet? :p

    If I go down in the hall of fame for stupidity I'm taking YOU with me girl

    *hugs you* come visit me.. Ict sucks.. im just waiting to see if anyone will look/reply to my thread for me
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Presumably if I have a kid I can teach it that blue is red and green is blue. That The sky is called grass and the Sea is called rock?!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by byny
    Presumably if I have a kid I can teach it that blue is red and green is blue. That The sky is called grass and the Sea is called rock?!

    you could.. but what I'm getting at is that someone orignially thought "thats a cup" and "thats a ball" why didn't other people disagree how did he decided it was called that WHO decided it was called that...

    it's so complex and if you don't know what I'm going on about sorry, I understand myself anyway..:)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by byny
    Presumably if I have a kid I can teach it that blue is red and green is blue. That The sky is called grass and the Sea is called rock?!

    When i was younger i used to think that it would be really funny to do that to my kid, like teach them the wrong things say that a fork is for brushing hair and so on.
    But now i think thats just silly. Knowing my luck (and my genes) My kid will be dumb enough with out my help:p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aw gawd... Language is arbitrary, there is no logical connection between the speech form (the signifier) and the actual object (signified). It would have been whatever they people of thousands of years ago decided to call it. Modern day words probably weren't as they are thousands of years ago, and have evolved through linguistic variation and change, eventually evolving to what we know the word as today. Take the word 'house', it OE it used to be 'hus', but through sound changes it ended up being a double vowel and 'house'. It never worked in Scotland though, which is why it's still 'hoose'. It also depends on the group of languages under examination, since there are loads of larger groups where the smaller subgroups come from. (English is part of the group of Proto-Germanic, which in turn comes from Proto-Indo European). And teaching a kid that would be possible, but you would have to separate them from all other civilisation, or have EVERYONE they came into contact with speak in the same terms.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh, and about the whole 'who decided what' thing. Language is a social construct, and it can only work if the majority agree on what to call stuff, the order it goes in and so on. :yes:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    but if you're interested in the development of the english language, 'mother tongue' by bill bryson is a really interesting book.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Do you know, as a linguistics student, I still haven't read that book? Up to my eyeballs in more specific texts. A book on pronominals? Language and gender. It's amazing how specific these books can be... I'm actually doing a paper on linguistic change and evolution, it's really quite cool. Doing an essay just now on modal verbs in Scots and English. Quite interesting stuff.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by kaffrin
    but if you're interested in the development of the english language, 'mother tongue' by bill bryson is a really interesting book.

    Ooo I love books:) <3

    thanks kaffrin I'll defently look into that...:heart: thank you:)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by kaffrin
    but if you're interested in the development of the english language, 'mother tongue' by bill bryson is a really interesting book.

    I just read that :hyper:

    Really enjoyed it, actually. Got a big thick one waiting for me to wade through too :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Lil Laura
    I just read that :hyper:

    Ooooo ooo can I steal your copy please:) :hyper:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Hellfire
    Ooooo ooo can I steal your copy please:) :hyper:

    No. S'mine. :mad:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Lil Laura
    No. S'mine. :mad:


    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *grabs hold of your copy of the book* s'mine now :p

    :crying: will most books shops do it then?
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