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The primary purpose of language is understanding. Forking a language to convey some sort of cultural distinction has the unfortunate side effect of making this
by dukoid 9y ago
The primary purpose of language is understanding. Forking a language to convey some sort of cultural distinction has the unfortunate side effect of making this more difficult.
- mark212 9y agonot sure that's the primary purpose. It can also be a very strong way to reinforce / test the boundaries of a group. Do you talk like us or not? Are you one of us? There are a multitude of ways to convey understanding; the how is sometimes more important than the content.
- icebraining 9y agoIt can also be used for the inverse purpose; if you're an oppressed minority, a dialect may be helpful in obfuscating your communications from the powers-that-be. An example that fits this and your purpose would be Polari: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari
- weberc2 9y agoConveying meaning is necessarily more primary than forming group identity simply because "do you talk like us" depends on "us talking to each other" in the first place. It's hard to imagine an evolution where intra-group communication happened as a result of extra-group communication.
- icebraining 9y agoRight, but here we're talking about understanding in a broader group - specifically, between groups - since that was what dukoid's post was about.
- weberc2 9y agoDukoid said the primary purpose of language is not communication (conveying meaning), but intergroup identification. I don't see how this could be possible.
- fishcolorbrick 9y agoLanguage is as much about parsing groups as it is about understanding, and it has been for a really long time [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth
- hacking_again 9y agoThe other primary purpose of language is communicating group membership. For example, it's reasonable to guess that you belong to the "uses version control" group by your use of the word "forking" in a non-VC context above.
- dukoid 9y agoI'd argue that this is only a secondary purpose at most -- and in this case not intended at all. Also, there are other uses of the word forking outside of VC. For instance, I have heard it in the context of threads first... O:)
- hacking_again 9y agoIt doesn't have to be intended. It's just that every time you write or speak you communicate group membership. For example, there are further implications about group membership when you correct my interpretation of forking. Another example: unless it's a typo, your grammar ("I have heard") indicates that English is not your first language.
- c3534l 9y ago> Forking a language This is why I like hackernews.
- yongjik 9y agoThis is a flawed analogy. Software projects usually have a "central" repository which serves as the ground truth, and copies are made bit-perfect. Any difference is a result of someone's conscious choice. Languages are learned individually by each child, depending on the environment that includes family, friends, and the whole town. No two kids can have exactly the same upbringing. So, having multiple dialects is pretty much the natural state of any living, thriving language. To artificially unify them is a conscious choice that needs to be justified.
- Pent 9y agoThe primary purpose of language is communication which does not imply understanding. Understanding is a subtle insult if you think about it.