-- is nearly an irrelevant question. How, or why, or where, or when, or with whom you speak might all be more informative. On the other hand, maybe those questions are all tied up in the choice of which language to speak when.
I've long been interested in the issues surrounding translation among languages, and I spent a lot of time this week reading about language and how it works (Wittgenstein, MacIntyre, Kristeva, anyone?). Is language a social phenomenon? How does narrative work to construct self-identity?
I remember reading years ago about Alex, the African gray parrot who was perhaps the non-human animal most fluent in a human language. He was able to communicate effectively on a number of fronts -- to the point of coining words -- but I always thought it was a little suspect to evaluate his intelligence based on his performance in a second language. I was happy to discover this morning that language is not, after all, distinctive to humans, and we will have the chance to learn the syntax of another species. Hopefully they think we're smart (and that speaking with us is worth their while!).
As a side note, I saw Whistler's mother at the Frist last Saturday. She's looking as well as ever.
[Insert joke about her talkativeness here...]
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