At our last class meeting for 802, I had some people approach me after class to further discuss the at times controversial subject of linguistic relativity. The theory of linguistic relativity, which is tied to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, is the idea that an individual's linguistic, cultural, and life experience background can hold some bearing on his/her way of thinking. In a determinist approach, a theorist might say that the majority of an individual's thought patterns and eventual decisions are based on this linguistic and cultural background. In the more common theory of linguistic relativity takes a weaker stance that while these things may have some influence on some situations, they by far will not determine an individual's general cognition.
For example, a lot of papers on this topic deal with issues of tangible senses across languages. Did you know that is some languages, there are only two colors--dark and light. There are no words for red, green, purple, blue, etc. Would that affect the way a person views the world?
Some papers deal with the way languages describe space and a person's location in it. In English, we have the small-scale ideas of items being relativistically located to one's right or left, but the big scale ideas of buildings being located to the north, south, east or west. However, some languages lack one or the other--everything is described in either relative terms (i.e., right, left, in front of, behind, etc.) or definite terms (i.e. north of, south of, east of, west of). Would that affect the way a person constructs a mental model or metaphor of the world?
In English, the typical metaphor for time is that we move forward through it, boldly going where no man has gone before. So when we look ahead, we are looking into the future. In some Native American languages, the metaphor could go something like this: a person is standing in a river facing downstream. The future is upstream--this makes sense when you consider that the future is unknown until it comes to pass. In these languages, the metaphors make reference to the future being behind a person, where it cannot be seen, whereas the past is in front and seen, and ever moving away. How would that affect those mental models?
Before you say how weird those languages must be, please know that English is actually the weird one out in terms of world languages. Most languages don't have as many words for color as English does. And most languages describe things in definite terms. So please remember to take a step outside the belief that English is "normal" or "easy" before reading any of these papers--English is really pretty exotic on several fronts as languages go.
For further reading, I highly recommend starting with the overview of linguistic relativity presented on wikipedia: Linguistic Relativity.
For further reading, these are the articles that most of my teachers taught in class during my undergraduate career. A lot of them are very popular, and there is a lot on the topic posted on the web, so I suggest anyone that's interested pokes around some:
BERLIN, BRENT & PAUL KAY (1969). Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.
GUMPERZ, JOHN, & STEPHEN LEVINSON EDS. (1996). Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
KAY, PAUL & CHAD K. MCDANIEL (1978). "The Linguistic Significance of Meanings of Basic Color Terms.". Language 54: 610-646.
LAKOFF, GEORGE (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. University Of Chicago Press.
LEVINSON, STEPHEN C. (1996). "Language and Space". Annual review of Anthropology 25: 353-82.
LUCY, JOHN A. (1992a). Grammatical Categories and Cognition: A Case Study of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
LUCY, JOHN A. (1992b). Language Diversity and Thought: A Reformulation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MALOTKI, EKKEHART (1983). Werner Winter. ed. "Hopi Time: A Linguistic Analysis of the Temporal Concepts in the Hopi Language". Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs (Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers) 20.
PULLUM, GEOFFREY (1991). The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language. Chicaco University Press. http://users.utu.fi/freder/Pullum-Eskimo-VocabHoax.pdf.
WHORF, BENJAMIN (1956). John B. Carroll (ed.). ed. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. MIT Press.
Showing posts with label LI802. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LI802. Show all posts
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
LI 802 Learning Group Project
For my LI 802 Learning Group Project, I decided to present my Expert Group research by creating an interactive website presentation.
http://sites.google.com/site/li802hcit/home
I tried to make the presentation as multi-modal as possible to accomodate all learning styles. I made a handout to accomodate the information on the site and the verbal presentation, and it is available for download from the resources page. I also put in a lot of links to extra resources throughout the presentation for active independent exploration, as well as some technology demonstrations.
Overall, the feedback from my group was very good--they enjoyed the presentation and seemed very pleased that I had taked such care to address all learning styles. In terms of Google Sites, I was most frustrated by the fact that the templates don't allow much manipulations of the headings, but I was very pleased with the final poduct.
I can honestly say I'm proud of my work on this one and happy that I took a risk by doing the project via a website--it expressed both my personal style, the presentation content and form, and contained and displayed a great deal of information for my group's later reference.
http://sites.google.com/site/li802hcit/home
I tried to make the presentation as multi-modal as possible to accomodate all learning styles. I made a handout to accomodate the information on the site and the verbal presentation, and it is available for download from the resources page. I also put in a lot of links to extra resources throughout the presentation for active independent exploration, as well as some technology demonstrations.
Overall, the feedback from my group was very good--they enjoyed the presentation and seemed very pleased that I had taked such care to address all learning styles. In terms of Google Sites, I was most frustrated by the fact that the templates don't allow much manipulations of the headings, but I was very pleased with the final poduct.
I can honestly say I'm proud of my work on this one and happy that I took a risk by doing the project via a website--it expressed both my personal style, the presentation content and form, and contained and displayed a great deal of information for my group's later reference.
Friday, June 5, 2009
First Weekend LI802 (part deux, after the break)
Robert Taylor created the levels of information need; his article is on reserve for my class. Maybe I'll be able to find a copy to link to here. Update--I found a link to this article and posted it below.
Robert Taylor's Process of Asking Questions
Taylor's Levels of Information Need:
-Visceral Need (actual, but unexpressed)
-Concious Need (within-brain description)
-Formalized Need (formal statement of the need)
-Compromised Need (as presented to the information system)
Lynch (1978) wrote in her paper that most librarians used close-ended questions in most reference interactions. This is important because it defines the user in terms of the library instead of vice versa; it forces the expectations of the library onto the user instead of asking what the user desires. Also, open-ended questions tend to create a more welcoming environment ("How may I help you?") than closed-ended questions ("Can I help you?").
Grover's Diagnostic Cycle (1993) also explored the librarian/user interaction.
-Diagnosis Stage: What? Where? When? Who?
-Prescription Stage: resource is proscribed
-Treatment Stage: user considers resource in relation to need, perhaps the need is fulfilled--the librarian should always ask.
-Evaluation Stage: If information need is not fulfilled, then the cycle starts all over again.
Robert Taylor's Process of Asking Questions
Taylor's Levels of Information Need:
-Visceral Need (actual, but unexpressed)
-Concious Need (within-brain description)
-Formalized Need (formal statement of the need)
-Compromised Need (as presented to the information system)
Lynch (1978) wrote in her paper that most librarians used close-ended questions in most reference interactions. This is important because it defines the user in terms of the library instead of vice versa; it forces the expectations of the library onto the user instead of asking what the user desires. Also, open-ended questions tend to create a more welcoming environment ("How may I help you?") than closed-ended questions ("Can I help you?").
Grover's Diagnostic Cycle (1993) also explored the librarian/user interaction.
-Diagnosis Stage: What? Where? When? Who?
-Prescription Stage: resource is proscribed
-Treatment Stage: user considers resource in relation to need, perhaps the need is fulfilled--the librarian should always ask.
-Evaluation Stage: If information need is not fulfilled, then the cycle starts all over again.
First Weekend LI802
Theoretical Foundations of Service: Diagnosis and Customization.
For the record, I rarely remember the names of the classes I take. I remember the content, and the people, but not the complex names. For me this class is 802. This class is about how people seek information from a cognitive and cultural perspective; I'm hoping the lessons will go hand in hand with some of the cognitive science classes I've taken for my CompLing MA.
non-human intermediaries: exactly what we discussed in 840. It's information architecture; providing effective information services and easily accessible resources to humans through computers.
information seeking behavior/information use behavior: how people seek and use information.
diagnosis: process of assessment/examination of a condition to determine needsand responsive solution
customization: design and construction of a service to suit an individual's or group's needs based on their specifications.
system-centered: prior to the 1960s, the librarian was the Keeper of Information. In a system-centered approach, the research focused on the library (i.e., how many people came there, how often, and for how long).
user-centered: the research focuses on how people seek and use information (notice the removal of focus on the library).
We apply a user-centered and interdisciplinary approach in LIS.
A note on social linguistics: linguistics is my *other* MA, so I was pretty pleased when the professor started talking about research she'd read on social linguistics. Social linguistics in big now, especially in the way of conversation analysis. The bond between culture, language, and cognition is huge in research in many fields (psychology, speech language and hearing sciences, artificial intelligence, linguistics, computer science...). Also big right now (and usually the topic I pick when I have to do a conversation analysis project) is language and technology--how texting, emailing, and IMing has affected language. One of the most interesting facets of texting analysis is the invention and use of emoticons--the little smilies and faces that convey emotion when we don't have a facial expression or vocal tone to accompany our words. ;)
And a funny story on GPS devices (the professor mentioned GPS devices as a major change in information exchange): I don't own one. However, a lot of people do, and a lot of things are now getting defined in terms of coordinate location. This affects me because the nerds on World of Warcraft have invented a GPS coordinate system for the game. So when you're looking for something, you go online and find, "Oh yeah, thats in Winterspring area at XX, YY." And it's really annoying because I do not have this game app installed, so whatever coordinates are given do not help me. I need directions such as "go southwest from the major town and look for a cave..."
My story on the importance of information: My first semester of graduate school, I also got married and bought a HUD house. The house was missing windows, had holes in the walls and doors, needed repairs to the heating system, and needed all of the floors and major appliances replaced. Before we did any of this, we got internet. Literally. I was without floors, heat, laundry services, fridge, oven, dishwasher, home security, and privacy, and all I wanted was my access to world information. We had it before we even moved all of our furniture in, because there was no way I could turn in my assignments without it (...and this program wasn't even internet based).
For the record, I rarely remember the names of the classes I take. I remember the content, and the people, but not the complex names. For me this class is 802. This class is about how people seek information from a cognitive and cultural perspective; I'm hoping the lessons will go hand in hand with some of the cognitive science classes I've taken for my CompLing MA.
non-human intermediaries: exactly what we discussed in 840. It's information architecture; providing effective information services and easily accessible resources to humans through computers.
information seeking behavior/information use behavior: how people seek and use information.
diagnosis: process of assessment/examination of a condition to determine needsand responsive solution
customization: design and construction of a service to suit an individual's or group's needs based on their specifications.
system-centered: prior to the 1960s, the librarian was the Keeper of Information. In a system-centered approach, the research focused on the library (i.e., how many people came there, how often, and for how long).
user-centered: the research focuses on how people seek and use information (notice the removal of focus on the library).
We apply a user-centered and interdisciplinary approach in LIS.
A note on social linguistics: linguistics is my *other* MA, so I was pretty pleased when the professor started talking about research she'd read on social linguistics. Social linguistics in big now, especially in the way of conversation analysis. The bond between culture, language, and cognition is huge in research in many fields (psychology, speech language and hearing sciences, artificial intelligence, linguistics, computer science...). Also big right now (and usually the topic I pick when I have to do a conversation analysis project) is language and technology--how texting, emailing, and IMing has affected language. One of the most interesting facets of texting analysis is the invention and use of emoticons--the little smilies and faces that convey emotion when we don't have a facial expression or vocal tone to accompany our words. ;)
And a funny story on GPS devices (the professor mentioned GPS devices as a major change in information exchange): I don't own one. However, a lot of people do, and a lot of things are now getting defined in terms of coordinate location. This affects me because the nerds on World of Warcraft have invented a GPS coordinate system for the game. So when you're looking for something, you go online and find, "Oh yeah, thats in Winterspring area at XX, YY." And it's really annoying because I do not have this game app installed, so whatever coordinates are given do not help me. I need directions such as "go southwest from the major town and look for a cave..."
My story on the importance of information: My first semester of graduate school, I also got married and bought a HUD house. The house was missing windows, had holes in the walls and doors, needed repairs to the heating system, and needed all of the floors and major appliances replaced. Before we did any of this, we got internet. Literally. I was without floors, heat, laundry services, fridge, oven, dishwasher, home security, and privacy, and all I wanted was my access to world information. We had it before we even moved all of our furniture in, because there was no way I could turn in my assignments without it (...and this program wasn't even internet based).
Egads! No weekend?
Second week in a row where I've had to run home from work to hustle through some chore duties before heading off to class. LI802 starts tonight, runs through tomorrow, and then I have just enough time Sunday to do laundry and dishes before the week starts again. Thank goodness for Sunday; I'm not speaking to my husband today because I left this morning before he got up and I have to leave for class before he gets home. I need to go to bed right when I get home tonight so I can be up in time tomorrow.
I'm still not sure how this is going to work when my linguistics classes pick back up in the fall. If nothing else, it should be interesting.
I'm still not sure how this is going to work when my linguistics classes pick back up in the fall. If nothing else, it should be interesting.
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