Episode 97 The intimacy of denial
From Structured Visions · 59:30
Show by Jodie Clark
What's the weirdest thing about human language? We explore linguistic polarity and all its bizarre implications. Embedded in every human grammar is a way of turning a positive clause (I'm listening) into a negative clause (I'm not listening). Grammatical negation is one of the ways we can do denial. ('I'm not scared of that dog,' said the three-year-old whose body was telling an entirely different story.) What would a language without negation look like? My story 'Negative space' refers to an (imaginary?) alien language where everything is expressed in the affirmative. Closer to home, we could speculate about the Earth's own language. If languages are ways of structuring information, then human languages are uniquely structured around selfhood. Negative polarity works to structure the relationship between self and other, which sometimes means denying the other, sometimes affirming them. Either way it's a route to intimacy. If human language draws a boundary or a membrane around the distinct self, then the intimacy of negation can be a way of acknowledging and celebrating those boundaries. The other story I mention in this episode is 'Lessons in Latin'. Connect with me and discover my courses on jodieclark.com Sign up for the Grammar for Dreamers newsletter here: jodieclark.com/newsletter Subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to listen. Rate, review, tell your friends!
More episodes of Structured Visions
More episodes
- Episode 1 The mystery of the little Black baby dolls
- Episode 2 Chutes and Ladders, or I am being so American
- Episode 3 Objective, descriptive and other broken promises in linguistics
- Episode 4 I'm like, social structure really pisses me off!
- Episode 5 Kill your peas and other stories from alien worlds
- Episode 6: I was one of the those: uniqueness and community
- Episode 7 I left, like, that night: the isolated individual
- Episode 8 The Model Person: traffic, politeness, French kissing and fingernails
- Episode 9 It's not fair! The rational, disembodied person
- Episode 10 Potties and bodies
podsearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about podsearch, the privacy policy or contact us.