Anyone who has taken a class with Dr. Petrone will know
where I’m coming from in this: words have cultural, social, and political
connotations and significance. Each hearer will interpret everything a speaker says in a
different way, but specific meanings may depend on the geographical location,
the society surrounding that location, and values that inform their
understanding of language, among other things. “Common use regulates the
meaning of words pretty well for common conversation,” but the definition of
common depends on multiple aspects (819). We’ve talked quite a bit about geographical
location for most of the rhetoricians in this class, and it never really sunk
in how much location or “common use” could really affect the hearers. But – if
we recognize language as a social practice, one that is shaped and molded by
the values and culture that informs it – it is easy to recognize rhetoric as a
same sort of practice.
“Words, too, may carry cultural connotations – or even personal
ones – that complicate the relationship between communicated word and signified
idea,” which suggests that words do not refer to external ideas or objects but
rather refer to ideas and objects in our minds. “He applies that the words of any
language to ideas different from those to which the common use of that country
applies to them, however his own understanding may be filled with truth and
light, will not by such words be able to convey much of it to others, without
defining his terms” (826). The
continuous search for clarity or “perspicuity” seems to be the search for
effective speech that reaches a wide and diverse audience, all while portraying
an idea that all can understand in the same way, or at least very similarly so
it does not lose the meaning he intended.
So the cultural and geographical understanding of language
may intervene with hearers’ understandings, but by choosing words carefully and
continually working toward achieving clarity and avoiding the “arts of fallacy”
should a speaker be able to reach a wider audience and be more effective. It
gives a little more meaning to the saying, “Choose your words carefully.”
Kim-
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you brought up the idea of a sociocultural projection and working of words and their meanings in different settings. I especially liked how you thought about a more geographic perspective as the readings take place in various areas and in those are a complex network of the meanings and USES of words unknown or unacknowledged by others. Moreover, I thought you brought up a good point in terms of thinking about the tangible aspects versus the projections constructed in the mind and how those differ not only among people, but also cultures.
Perhaps the most significant idea I came away from this text with is the old adage "know your audience". Locke's concern about defining meaning really comes down to knowing how your audience will interpret the words you use. Of course, the wider the audience the more difficult this becomes due to the reasons you have cited.
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