Explain the modern day to someone from 1523 with five words.
Before you even begin to write the first word and put a coma after it, you'll realise that our language has evolved to the point where you can no longer convey into words the facts of our everyday reality -- the world we inhabit today, to someone who lived 500 years ago. There are innumerable words that did not exist, or that had a different meaning. The language we use today is like layers upon layers of metaphors. So, leaving aside the neologisms, the level of abstraction we utilise in out everyday communication would be unintelligible for a man that lived 5 or 6 generations ago. The common man was illiterate anyway. Ten percent, the clergy, aristocracy and wealthy merchants could read and write.
We've done quite some progress since. Today most of us can understand the language of those times.
I draw two conclusions from this. Language reflects the external world and the culutre. It is directly correlated with our world. It does not transform on a linear scale. Think of how many new words we added to our vocabullary since the iPhone came out. Uber for dates, ah you mean Tinder ? Or Tinder for dogs. Whatever you get it. That would mean absolutely nothing for someone living in 1523. So, how would you explain the modern day to someone from 1523 with only five words ?
Before you even begin to write the first word and put a coma after it, you'll realise that our language has evolved to the point where you can no longer convey into words the facts of our everyday reality -- the world we inhabit today, to someone who lived 500 years ago. There are innumerable words that did not exist, or that had a different meaning. The language we use today is like layers upon layers of metaphors. So, leaving aside the neologisms, the level of abstraction we utilise in out everyday communication would be unintelligible for a man that lived 5 or 6 generations ago. The common man was illiterate anyway. Ten percent, the clergy, aristocracy and wealthy merchants could read and write.
We've done quite some progress since. Today most of us can understand the language of those times.
I draw two conclusions from this. Language reflects the external world and the culutre. It is directly correlated with our world. It does not transform on a linear scale. Think of how many new words we added to our vocabullary since the iPhone came out. Uber for dates, ah you mean Tinder ? Or Tinder for dogs. Whatever you get it. That would mean absolutely nothing for someone living in 1523. So, how would you explain the modern day to someone from 1523 with only five words ?
