I found something that was really interesting in this class was the fact that languages have evolved. From oral and pictographic storytelling to what we have now with an alphabetic system to form what we call literature. After reading multiple blogs when we were studying pictographic languages I thought it was fascinating all the different pictographic items we still use. Graffiti being very predominant in our lives and still can be seen almost anywhere really resonated with me. Showcasing symbols and pictures that clearly represent certain items. I think this can be said for tattoos too. When I see certain symbols tattooed on people sometime one can tell what they represent—this of course is in regards to the relationship with that person as well. For example I have a friend who is openly religious. They got a tattoo of an anchor—being a symbol of being strongly grounded into one’s faith. Reading a picture to know the meaning. With Graffiti I think it is interesting how symbols and in some cases pictures can represent “gang territories”. Even though our language is not a pictographic language we still have some residue of that in our culture. I spoke about how texting uses a form of pictographic language. With the use of certain characters and abstractions we can digitally convey emotions. This I find to be not only incredibly clever but necessary with the impact text messaging has on our everyday life—or at the very least my everyday life. With the ability to show not only tell what I am trying to convey through a phone in 140 characters is a huge advantage!
Overall I think it most interesting how we are evolving and remediating different items of our everyday life.
I think it depends upon the person texting as to whether their text will resemble some form of a pictographic message or not. I personally type everything out when I text. I hate when people abbreviate things, or use the wrong spellings, or use numbers where words go. It bothers me, because it doesn't seem like proper English. My mother on the other hand, texts like with all sorts of abbreviations, leaving out all sorts of information. I recently texted her that I had just left Pullman to come home for break and her reply was "kk c u l8tr." Now if my dad were to look at that text, he would have been utterly confused, because he has just now mastered the skills of looking at texts, and sending a few letter replies. To him that just looks like a bunch of mumbo jumbo. For many people who are not used to texting, the older generation of parents, grandparents, etc., the texting language is just as foreign as not having the key to a foreign language.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I agree that by looking at a tattoo, whether it is a common symbol or not, you can depict the meaning right away. People get tattoos of symbols for many different reasons. Your example of the anchor can represent multiple different things, it just depends on whose body it is on, you can't assume it has a religious meaning attached to it because not everyone is religious. A symbol or picture of some object does not represent the same meaning at all times. We cannot connect a certain symbol with a certain meaning and think that is the only meaning for it. For tattoos, it is more about the person and how they see and feel about the specific art engraved in to their skin. We cannot assume meanings for tattoos unless you know the person well or ask them about it.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I do get where you are coming from and how are language has evolved over time.