Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Idea formulation in the internet age

The study of languages has found that the background linguistic system, i.e. the structure, or grammar, of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather in itself the shaper of ideas. Formulation of ideas, then, is not an independent process but part of a particular grammar, and differs, from slightly to greatly, between different grammars, as argued by the linguist Benjamin Whorf*. This may suggest that ideation is a matter of different grammars. But, in the age of the internet and enhanced communication through social media technologies, is there an emerging global "super-grammar", or "super-ideation"? Or is this doubtful, in a similar way that the universal language project, as advanced by linguists throughout the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, was doomed to fail, not least because of the inherent ambiguity and generality of language?** . * Carroll, J. (Ed.) 1954. Language, Thought, and Reality; Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, MA: MIT. ** Phemister, P. 2006. The Rationalists: Decartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. Cambridge, UK: Polity