I'm all for individuality, but language is odd eh? This also cropped up on another thread where childish words were used. Isn't ALL language about communication? And isn't communication about just that - communicating? In this case, proper nouns matter not (well, not as much - although nuances get lost in meaning), but in general wouldn't you want communication to be inclusive rather than exclusive - so to be understandable by the majority? How many people, even in Wales who are Welsh through and through, know Welsh? How many people here know what Snowdon is? How many the Welsh original name?
If something expressed in a language is understood, then that is all language is (mainly) for. Poo or crap doesn't matter - but if I wrote an equivalent in Welsh, who here would understand?
I found it peculiar going to Asian countries and not being able to understand the signs - a sign could have meant ' Don't Go This Way - Danger!' or 'This Way To The Trains'. Not a scooby. But to the majority, the signs fulfilled their function.
Symbols only mean anything to people who already know what the symbol means. Languages are symbolic - everything humans do rely on symbols. We use a latin alphabet where each symbol is understood as they are taught - BUT - even in countries where the base symbols are also understood they have different sounds and are put together in different orders to make other symbols - ie words. We don't even agree on the same symbols.
So a triangle with a cross through it means?.....what about a skull and crossed bones?
This made me smile. I have on ongoing long range chat with my second cousin (a woman in her fifties). We live 50 miles apart and see each other very,very infrequently. Anyway, it was her birthday, so I sent her a text wishing her Happy Birthday and added a few emojis (or whatever they're called) showing what I took to be a party theme (ie balloons, champagne...etc). She texted back and thanked me - and said it was the first time she'd seen me use emojis. I said '...no I don't use them - as they're open to interpretation and they also appear differently on each platform '. She then said '...oh. don't worry about that,I don't know what they mean either - just add whatever appeals...' - so I texted back and added a random set of emojis. She stopped talking (messaging) to me. Apparently, I'd sent something 'improper'. Right. At that point I gave up. Symbols eh?
We had an Orange engineer here yesterday to connect us to the new fibre optic resource. He was delighted we're Brits and asked OH when he should address a man as Mister and when as Dude.
Heaven knows where he's learned his English.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I wish our resident WUM would just start up his own thread. At least we would know exactly where to access his wisdom rather than coming across it by chance.
I remember back in school we had to sit a health and safety exam before we could use the power tools in the Craft, Design, Technology class. Everyone was stumped by the symbol below apart from one kid who got half a mark for insisting that it meant 'Beware of invisible dogs'.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I am not sure why, but my brain can't process the signs in Moto service stations, the ones they have as you drive in off the slip roads. You get a tower of pictograms, which I think show the direction for cars or coaches and petrol or food. Given that I'm usually slowing from motorway speed but still moving quite rapidly when I reach them, I don't ever find I have time to work out what they say. Slamming the brakes on and stopping long enough to get my head round it would be unwise. I end up just going into the nearest car parking space, stopping and then trying to work out where I should be. Including, on occasion, walking back to the signpost and staring at it for a while as cars whizz by
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Yes, they sometimes fox me too @raisingirl ... although son seems to know what they all mean ...
The thing is, if you look at a picture of them when you're sitting at your desk, they seem obvious, but for some reason I just can't do it 'on the hoof'. I think it may be because the pictogram and the direction arrow are in separate 'bubbles' and I don't read them together
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Same here @raisingirl, road signs and directions are the same, slow down to read them whilst negotiating traffic and other users have to slam their anchors on because they are traveling too fast.
Right then, my Grump Of The Day is when I'm answering a post and typing @ and the members name the little sign stays there sometimes and then gets in the way of what I'm typing. Even doing a preview doesn't get rid of it until it's posted. Is it just me?
Posts
Heaven knows where he's learned his English.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Right then, my Grump Of The Day is when I'm answering a post and typing @ and the members name the little sign stays there sometimes and then gets in the way of what I'm typing. Even doing a preview doesn't get rid of it until it's posted.
Is it just me?