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not 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
by mark212 9y ago
not 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.