Spring 2006; 12:30-1:45 TTh; SH 261
Dr. R.B. Bookwalter, SH 245
696-2815 or bookwalt@marshall.edu
Texts:
Hayakawa, S.I. & Hayakawa, A.R. (1990). Language in thought and action; 5th edition. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Other articles as assigned.
Description:
In this course we sill examine the phenomenon of language as intimately linked to human thought, evolution and development. We will see that language defines our species and separates us from other species. We will look at the special character of language which both enables thought, and clouds our thinking. We will study the causes and consequences of our use and abuse of symbols and how that affects our thinking, our relationships, and our ability to make rational choices in a complex world.
Requirements & Assignments:
You will have three ways of earning points in this course: 1) a weekly contribution of Questions & Quotes to facilitate class discussion, 2) a series of Reaction Papers, and 3) a Final Paper summarizing your learning in the course.
Questions & Quotes (Q&Q): For each week’s readings you will submit questions and quotes to help shape our discussions. Read the material assigned for the week and submit, in writing, at least two questions that will help us generate discussion about the readings. These questions should arise from your intellectual curiosity about the ideas covered each week. In addition to your questions, you should submit at least two quotes drawn from each week’s readings. Emerson has said of the good reader that “. . . in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear.” Each week we will be reading material that invites exploration of our ways of thinking, behaving, and speaking. I expect that you will read thoughtfully enough to identify at least two brief passages that you find genuinely profound, provocative, or amusing.
Q&Q are due every Tuesday starting January 22; they are worth 75 points total.
Reaction Papers: To encourage your intellectual engagement with the issues addressed in this course, you will select from the list below four “short” papers. On the list you will find six (6) assignments with paper options and due dates. You are free to select from these options four papers to submit. These papers should be no less than two pages and no more than five pages in length (typed, double-spaced) and you can earn up to 25 points per paper for 100 points total. Please note that you have several options for each paper. For example, if you submit Paper #5, that paper should address just one of the four applications exercises listed (Ch 10 Application I; Ch 10, Application III; Ch 14, Application I; OR Ch 14, Application III). DO NOT write about ALL of the applications listed for the paper, JUST CHOOSE ONE.
Paper #1 Options (Due Jan 31)
Ch 1 Application III (Question 5 only)
Ch 2 Application I
Ch 11 Application III
Burke Which of the five principles is most sensible? Why? Which is least sensible? Why?
Paper #2 Options (Due Feb 14)
Ch 4 Application II or III
Ch 5 Application III or IV
Ch 8 Application II or IV
Postman Use the four elements of the semantic environment to explain two examples of crazy/stupid talk.
Paper #3Options (Due Feb 28)
Ch 3 Application III or V
Ch 6 Application IV
Ch 7 Application I, II, or IV
Dawes Using one agreement and one disagreement from your experience, argue either for or against proposition 1.
Paper #4 Options (Due Mar 16)
Ch 9 Application IV
Ch 10 Application III
Ch 14 Application III
Bois Describe a brief everyday activity (eating, driving, walking into a class/workplace/ bar) and analyze your abstracting as Bois did in this chapter.
Postman & Powers Respond to Writing Suggestion #2
Postman, Confusing Levels of Abstraction: Identify some of your own prejudices and explain how they are based on confusing levels of abstraction.
Postman, Self Reflexiveness: Describe an argument or self-fulfilling prophecy and explain how it is an example of self-reflexiveness.
Paper #5 Options (Due Apr 11)
Ch 15 Application I for 5 ads that you pick
Ch 17 Application III, or IV
Lutz Focus on Content Question #6
Paper #6 Options (Due Apr25)
Ch 12 Application II
Ch 13 Application I
Ch 16 Application III
Ch 18 Application III
Final Paper/Project/Portfolio (Due May 2)
On the assumption that every communication class leads to some personal learning, the final paper will address your learning in this course. You should reflect on the insights you have gained over the course of the term regarding:
How you use language and how language affects your thinking perception and behavior and how your new understanding of language (as a result of this course) has changed your perceptions, thinking and behavior.
You need to write a paper in which you discuss three (3) important ideas, lessons, or learnings that you have drawn from this course. Describe each in detail. Explain why the idea or lessons are relevant to you. Relate these lessons clearly to your personal experiences using examples.
Each of these lessons should be strongly supported by a variety of examples, which may include descriptions of communication episodes you have engaged in, ads drawn from print sources or transcribed from radio or TV, essays or articles taken from print sources, or any other detailed evidence you can put together to illustrate how your language use and your awareness of language has developed over the course of the semester.
These project portfolios are due May 2 and are worth up to 50 points.
Grading:
There are a total of 225 points possible in this course. Earn 205 and you’ll receive an A; earn 185-204 and you’ll receive a B; earn 165-184 and you’ll receive a C; earn 145-164 and you’ll receive a D; earn less than 125 and you will not pass.
Spring 2006
Course Schedule/Outline
Jan 10 & 12 I. Introduction to the Study of Language
A. Origins of Language
B. Approaches to the Study of Language
READ: Daniels, “9 Ideas about Language”
Fromkin & Rodman, “What is Language”
Jan 17 & 19 II. Humans & Language
A. Symbol-users and Symbol-mongers
B. Time Binders
READ: Hayakawa, Chapter 1
Burke, “Definition of Man”
Jan 24 & 26 III. The Nature of Language
A. Words & Meanings
B. Symbols & Symbolization
READ: Hayakawa, Chapters 1, 2, & 11
J 31 & F 2 IV. Symbols as Social Framework
A. Language in Context
1. Context in Meaning
B. Semantic Environments
1. Context as Meaning
READ: Hayakawa, Chapter 4
Postman, “The Semantic Environment”
Feb 7 & 9 C. Functions of Language
1. The Double Task of Language
a. Informative Connotations
b. Affective Connotations
2. Affective Communication
a. Verbal Hypnotism
b. Metaphor (as Mistake)
READ: Hayakawa, Chapters 5 & 8
Feb 14 & 16 3. What we Know and What we Don’t Know
a. Reports
b. Inferences
c. Judgments
READ: Hayakawa, Chapter 3
Dawes, “Taking Responsibility for the Meanings we Give”
Parts I and II
CMM 311: Language & Communication
Course Outline, page 2
Feb 21 & 23 4. The Language of Social Cohesion
a. Noise as Expression
b. The Value of Unoriginal Remarks
5. The Language of Social Control
a. Promises
b. Social Rules
c. Laws
READ: Hayakawa, Chapters 6 & 7
F 28 & M 2 V. The Process of Abstraction
A. Perception as an Abstraction
1. The Structural Differential
2. Knowledge and Certainty
READ: Hayakawa, Chapter 9
Bois, “Awaking to my World”
Mar 7 & 9 B. Perception and Language
1. The Ladder of Abstraction
a. The Human Nervous System
b. Definitions
2. Dead Level Abstracting
a. Confusing Levels of Abstraction
READ: Postman, “Confusing Levels of Abstraction”
Postman & Powers, “The Bias of Language . . .”
Mar 14 & 16 C. Language & Culture
1. A-town and B-ville
2. The Little Man who Wasn’t There
a. Stereotyping and Prejudice
b. Self Reflexiveness
READ: Hayakawa, Prologue & Chapter 10;
Postman, “Self-Reflexiveness”
Mar 21 & 23 SPRING BREAK
Mar 28 & 30 VI. Abstraction & Popular Culture
A. Art and Tension
1. Literature as “Equipment for Living”
2. Symbolic Strategies
3. Art as Order
B. Poetry and Advertising
1. Common Elements
2. Sponsored vs. Unsponsored Poetry
READ: Hayakawa, Chapters 14 & 15
CMM 311: Language & Communication
Course Outline; page 3
Apr 4 & 6 C. Television as Abstraction
1. The Empty Eye
2. In the Spotlight
a. Brevity & Immediacy
3. In the Shadows
a. Depth & Specificity
D. Television as an Instrument for Social Change
1. Why Politics Bore Us
READ: Hayakawa, Chapter 17
Lutz, “Weasel Words”
Apr 11 & 13 VII. Language & Thought
A. Infinite Complexity
1. Two-Valued Orientation
2. Multi-valued Orientation
READ: Hayakawa, Chapters 12 & 13
Apr 18 & 20 B. The World of Things & the World of Words
1. Intensional Orientation
2. Extensional Orientation
3. E-prime Language
READ: Hayakawa, Chapters 16 & 18
Apr 25 & 27 VIII. A Theory of Language and Conclusions
A. A Theory of Language
B. Your Conclusions
READ: Hayakawa, Chapter 19
May 2 Final Session