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The endeavor to start and sustain communication is typical of talking birds; thus the phatic function of language is the only one they share with human beings. It is also the first verbal function acquired by infants; they are prone to communicate before being able to send or receive informative communication. --Roman Jakobson, "The Speech Event and the Function of Language" |
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Comments on ""
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Reen said ... (9:05 AM) :
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-kaplan said ... (9:15 AM) :
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Reen said ... (5:46 AM) :
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K. Lorraine Graham said ... (10:55 PM) :
post a commentMy rice krispies are talking, but what are they saying?
Jakobson would say the rice krispies seek to initiate conversation, but they never get to the next stage of communicative content. This must be why we get angry and eat them.
Ha! I laugh and I laugh. I am angered by my cereal's failure to communicate content....
J'accuse, rice krispies!
We need more intellectual failings of which to accuse our foodstuffs and household items. I personally despise my couch for kowtowing to societal demands to perform its femininity. I mean, the couch won't be first against the wall when the revolution comes, but it definitely won't be part of the junta's inner circle, either, if you know what I'm saying...
But some birds do, clearly, send and receive informative communication. It's true that when a parrot says "Hi," it doesn't conceive of the greeting in the same way that most people do, but it assigns it's own meaning to "hi" depending on how people around it react when it says it, and then uses the word/sound accordingly.