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January 25, 2007

A Window into Human Nature

The lecture yesterday was pretty good.

Dr. Pinker broke the talk into three different sections:

1. Metaphors as a window into thought
   
   I think I've read what he presented in one of his other books (The Language Instinct?). He talked to how we use concrete physical terms to refer to abstract ideas (e.g Argument is war - His claims were indefensible, I attacked his argument. Love is a journey - Our relationship has stalled. Look how far we've come. We drifted apart. etc.).
   
   
2. Swearing as a window into emotion
   
   Swearing consists of emotionally charged words. Dr. Pinker gave a good breakdown on why people find swears offensive and the contexts in which swears are used. This section of the talk also used more expletives (in both number and variation) than I believe even the most well versed sailor could have used in such a limited time frame. Bravo, Dr. Pinker! Bravo!
   
   Some interesting highlights: a list of 33 different ways we refer to feces (Pinker: "Makes you wonder what the fuss is about the number of words for snow Eskimos supposedly have."). Polite terms for sex being intransitive verbs, while cruder terms are transitive verbs - the former indicating mutual consensual actions, the latter less so. The delight Pinker had for the 16th century curse "kiss the cunt of a cow" ("There's a wonderful alliteration to it.").
   
   
3. Innuendo as a window into social interaction
   
   This was personally my favorite section. He used the example of bribing a police officer to get out of a speeding ticket. Innuendo helps get intent across when you don't know the morals of others. It's in innuendo that you can reap the benefits of bribing a corrupt cop while avoiding the penalties of bribing a scrupulous one.

It was an hour and a half long and seemed like only a small taste of a really interesting topic. I'm eager to see the actual research when it's out.

On a side note, the question period after was... interesting. There were some good questions, but they were in the minority. I always love people who just adore hearing the sound of their own voices and demonstrating how brilliant they are to the group. "Gesticulation" and "Hominid evolution" are terms not to be thrown around lightly. Especially when the question is really: Does non-verbal communication add to how people understand language?

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As expected, the LBS admits were a great bunch. I didn't expect us to be drinking as long as we did but I guess the training for London has to start somewhere.

Labels: Interest, Rave

Posted at 2:29 PM
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