3. Language

A. Nature of Language

1. How have spoken sounds acquired meaning? What is the nature of the connection between the sounds and what they are taken to represent?
2. How does language come to be known? Is the capacity to acquire language innate?
3. Is it possible to think without language? How does language extend, direct, or even limit thinking?
4. To what extent does language generalize individual experience, classifying it within the experience of the group? To what extent does a personal experience elude expression in language?
5. Can language be compared with other human forms of symbolic representation, such as conventionalized gestures, sign language for the deaf, dance, painting, music or mathematics? What might language share with these other forms in the communication of what we know? In what ways might it be considered distinct?
6. To what extent is knowledge implicit in language? For example, could it be said that 'Saturday is in bed' does not convey meaning, even though the sentence is syntactically correct, because of the prior knowledge that days of the week are not physical objects?
7. To what extent does knowledge actually depend on language: on the transmission of concepts from one person or generation to another, and on exposure of concepts or claims to public scrutiny?

B. Limitations of Language

1. In what ways does written language differ from spoken language in its relationship to knowledge?
2. Can control of written language create or reinforce power?
3. Is it reasonable to argue for preservation of established forms of language? Is it reasonable to ask for one language common to the whole world?
4. What is the role of language in creating and reinforcing social distinctions, such as class, ethnicity and gender?
5. If people speak more than one language, is what they know different in each language? Does each language provide a different framework for reality?
6. How is the meaning of what is said affected by silences and omissions, pace, tone of voice and bodily movement? How might these factors be influenced in turn by the social or cultural context?
7. What is lost in translation from one language to another? Why?
8. To what extent is it possible to overcome ambiguity and vagueness in language?
9. To what degree might different languages shape in their speakers different concepts of themselves and the world? What are the implications of such differences for knowledge?
10. In most of the statements heard, spoken, read or written, facts are blended with values. How can an examination of language distinguish the subjective biases and values which factual reports may contain? Why might such an examination be desirable?

C. Linking Questions

1. In completing the sentence, 'I know that . . .', one is making a knowledge claim. Why is it useful or necessary to express knowledge claims? Are there Areas of Knowledge where it is expected or required? Are there Ways of Knowing where it is not?
2. In what contexts might ambiguity either impede knowledge or contribute to it? Does the balance between precision and ambiguity alter from one discipline to another?