[lbo-talk] Chomsky on sociobiology

[Chris Doss]

I'm still really not sure what you mean by its being
one's creature. Do you mean in the sense that you
actively work with it and form it, pushing it into new
contexts? I've studied quite a few foreign languages
(English being my native language), two of them to the
point where I could claim to be fluent or very
competent, and you can certainly see what I think you
are talking about when one is still at the stage of
"translating" one's thoughts from the native to the
"target" language and the effort that can take.

On the other hand I do think that languages do carry a
certain overarching "structure" and that there are
some things that are easier to express in some
languages than others. How would you translate the
word "ignorer" into French? "Ignorer" in French means
"to be unaware of of." "To ignore" has an active
sense. "Faire expres de ne pas appercevoir"?

I've noticed myself forgetting English words lately
and using Russisms in my English. It's kind of strange
to see it happening.

--- Jean-Christophe Helary <fusion at mx6.tiki.ne.jp>
wrote:


> That being monolingual makes it harder to see
> language as one's  
> creature because abstracting one's language and the
> social products  
> that come with it within the system inherited by
> one's language is  
> not something that is required in daily life.
> 
> While people who are multilingual have at least two
> lingual/social  
> references and that helps putting things into
> perspective on a daily  
> basis. I am not saying that monolingual people are
> less able than  
> multilingual people. Just that concerning language
> and its social  
> representation it should be easier for multilingual
> people to  
> identify language as "their" creature,
> 
> Jean-Christophe
> 

Nu, zayats, pogodi!

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