The Concept of Language (Noam Chomsky)
The Concept of Language (Noam Chomsky) on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2021–2024.
Noam Chomsky talks with the University of Washington's Upon Reflection about how languages change over time, why a national language is a modern idea, and how language is a system of communication rooted in human nature.
What HN commenters said
5 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
surfpelDec 2023Strongly recommends
"Learning" is also a noun [1] - which can be plural, so I'd say the creator of those comments has some learnings to make. More generally, though, being a grammar nazi is silly. Dictionaries are defined by the common use of language and language is quite flexible, evolving, unique to individuals, and even used to be much more geographically continuous than it is today.[2] 1 - [link] 2 - Here's my favorite talk on the subject given by Chomsky, highly recommend a listen (especially to the poster of those dead comments): ▶ this video
in “History-making SpaceX booster mostly destroyed in post-flight topple” · View on HN
jculJun 2024Recommends
I love this old interview. If you skip to the very last question at 26:50, it is a little bit poignant, considering this news. ▶ this video
in “Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'” · View on HN
random314May 2022Recommends
Yes, the concept of nationalism and national language is a modern phenomenon. It is helpful in having subjects treat their governments as correct and moral by default and develop a distrust of their neighbors. Noam chomsky has an informative interview. He seems to think the concept of guardianship of a "pure" language is conceptually silly ▶ this video
in “France bans English gaming tech jargon in push to preserve language purity” · View on HN
random314Mar 2023Cites it
> If this is your sort of goalpost, then even relatively homogenous countries like Germany and Italy shouldn't really exist today, given that they only coalesced in the late 19th century. The strength of modern state propaganda is such that people have developed all kinds of crazy notions about history. The nation state is a modern invention and this involves myth building about the country going back to ancient times. The French spoken in southern France had much more in common with northern Italian. Its just common sense that it would be so. Modern French was forced down it's subjects just like Urdu in Pakistan, Standardized Mandarin in China and ongoing attempts for Hindu in India. The state has been elevated to the status of a mythical quasi religious entity. ▶ this video
in “Nalanda: The university that changed the world” · View on HN
speedcoderOct 2021Cites it
Hmm. Does language itself come from inventing a way to express what one wants to express? What would Chomsky say? ▶ this video
in “Peter Norvig Joins Stanford HAI” · View on HN