COM 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: The Saturday Evening Post, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Doublespeak
Document Summary
Language can: clarify, obscure, influence perception. Double speak: use a word to mask the meaning of the word, ex) preowned vehicles vs. used, ex) this is the operative statement. When did language begin: glottology- study of the origin of language, no original language exists, language is not static, more than 7,100 languages currently used worldwide. Linguistic relativity hypothesis: anthropologist benjamin whorf in 1956, what we perceive is limited by the langue in which we think and speak, different languages lead to different patterns of thought. The five canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, delivery, memory. What is style: no matter how erudite, if style is ineffective, its bad, no matter how plain, if style is effective, its good. Effective language: helps listeners remember, awakens feelings, moves people to action. We"re going to go through them like crap through a goose!: metaphor. That stuff you hear about american not wanting to fight is a lot of horse dung. : hyperbole.
