This clip is of linguist, Steven Pinker speaking about what our language habits reveal.
He starts off by talking about language change and the different attitudes toward language. There are two types of attitudes, descriptivism and prescriptivism. Descriptivism is using words that are purely descriptive whereas prescriptivism is just standard English. These two attitudes show the divergence of dialect and the formation of new language.
Pinker shows a slide of language as a window onto human nature. It says that language emerges from human minds interacting with one another. It also says visible in unstoppable change in language such as slang and jargon, historical change, dialect divergence and language formation.
The communication model starts with the sender, then the message is created which goes to the receiver.
Euphemistic language is often used to avoid speaking the subject word of things that people usually don't openly talk about, such as sex. It all relates to social, historical and cultural context.
Indirect speech is used a lot in our day to day language. According to Pinker, "language is a way of negotiating relationships". For example, imperatives aren't always a way of showing dominance. However, language can be awkward if all parties involved aren't on the same page because the language can be misconstrued.
Pinker concludes the talk by mentioning that the complexity of language reflects human nature and how we can relate to one another.
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