Heng Ding
The idea of this blog comes from the video posted by Amanda Baggs on Youtube called “In My Language” (you can find the link below). Briefly speaking, Amanda is an autism-rights activist and in this video, she showed and explained to the public how she interacted with the environment, which seems to be “mysterious and puzzling” from the generally accepted language perspective.
When I first watched this video, I was unfamiliar with Amanda’s situation and all the actions she made, as it’s not what we generally think “communication” or “language” is. Personally, one of the biggest reasons is that spoken language represents the most widespread mode of social communication (De Stefani & De Marco, 2019). It’s true that most of our thoughts are verbally expressed by symbols by which we build connections with the world, but there is a limitation to such a statement. De Stefani et al (2019) also argued that language should be considered always in relation to the background of a person’s mood, emotions, actions and events from which the things we are saying derive their meanings. Language is not limited to spoken or written words and sentences and there are many other factors such as personal identity and emotions that we should take into consideration. As a result, it’s not wise that we hold a narrow view of language and communication.
In Amanda’s case, she mentioned that “nobody was giving any chance, as usual, to the kinds of language and communication that people who are non-standard in some way often develop whether or not we also develop more standard language”, which is sad. In my opinion, the so-called “non-standard languages” cannot be looked down upon but instead deserves people’s understanding and respect as although in a minority position, they are also certain ways of how people interact and communicate with the world.
“Rub the face in a book, twirl string, play with water”, does this look different? No! It’s just a dominant way of communicating with the world.
References
De Stefani, E., & De Marco, D. (2019). Language, gesture, and emotional communication: An embodied view of social interaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02063
Hi Heng
I am really interested in your post. From my perspective, I could understand her interpretations of language. In terms of language, it is multidimensional. It not only refers to the spoken or written words. In addition, it can be interpreted in many ways, such as postures and emojis, etc. When I was in the undergraduate, I have taught children who are also autism in a period of time. I liked them very much. Sometimes, they could come up with some new ideas that we have not thought that before.
Hi Heng,
I really like your post here! I agree with your idea that language is diverse, rather than just written or spoken words. With technology, there are more kinds of language, such as emojis. They are just stickers, but sometimes, when our friends send them to us, we can understand what they mean, which is really amazing. There is no standard language. In contrast, it has actually exceeded the limits that we have imagined.
Yi Hu