Meaning of Words

I find language fascinating. Probably because I read (or at least used to) a lot of books and because I had the opportunity to grow up and think in three different languages. I find often that thinking about something in a particular language changes your perception of it--often simply due to the fact that a language may have a unique word that describes a concept that doesn't exist in another language. That's why we borrow such words and expressions, whether it's Shadenfreude or je ne sais quois.

The interesting thing is that you don't have to go between different languages to experience the same thing. Political speech often uses synonyms to convey a particular intonation. So we have "good" freedom fighters and "bad" insurgents. We have dedicated civil servants and obstinate bureaucrats. The words are interchangeable in their meaning, but not in how we (have been trained to) perceive them.

In an interview on how conservatives use language to dominate politics, UC Berkeley's George Lakoff talks about "framing" a topic. If you manage to set up a good conceptual framework for a topic, your opponent is pretty much powerless in discussing this topic within the framework. Lakoff's point is that the progressive side doesn't set up good frameworks and lets itself be forced to work within the conservative framework. He feels that they should frame topics in their own frameworks and gives a couple of good examples of what he's talking about.

I have noticed the use of synonyms before but have never really paid attention to the framework issue. I have only noticed it in the debate over abortion where one side talks in terms of a "women's right to choose" and the other side talks in terms of "saving unborn life". You notice that the sides never talk in terms of the opposite framework. This makes perfect sense, you don't want to be espousing your views as someone who want to "take away women's rights" or "kill innocent babies". It also limits the discussion to a certain extent (although really, it's difficult to see a middle ground in this debate).

I plan to pay more attention to this. Oh and I've added Lakoff's book Moral Politics : How Liberals and Conservatives Think to my wishlist...