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okie dokie. Well, after doing the reading, I have some other ideas to add to the observations I plan on doing. Well, let me first remind everyone of what I intend to observe. I will ask children...basically toddlers, a series of questions in hopes of understanding more about tacit knowing. This idea stemmed from the initial question is 2+2=4 tacit knowing. Some of us argued that perhaps the names of the numbers are not, but the concept is. So I will hold up 2 items before my subject and ask them to close their eyes and then add 2 other items and ask them to open their eyes and get their reaction. I am also thinking of doing some color tests, similar to the number test. Basically having a colored item and then have the subject close their eyes and bring up another colored item and get their reactions. I think I will also ask them to try and describe the color. In our class, we though that describing colors was basically impossible, so I want to see if it really is impossible, if perhaps our earlier minds were able to see color in a different way.

As far as the reading goes, it gave me a couple of new ideas for these tests. I would like to ask the child what their favorite word is. I would assume that it would be a simple word, just a word they know, maybe even the first word they understood, and then I would probably ask them why it is their favorite word. This sounds very complicated, I sincerely hope it works out!

Ok, back to the reading. I don't have too much commentary, mostly because it is even more mind boggling than last week's reading. It made me reflect on little language quirks I had as a child. I used to say things like, "She be's weird." But, I also distinctly remember my mother using grammar incorrectly in the same way, probably just imitating me in a cute way. This reading made me realize that I didn't learn to use grammar incorrectly from my mom, but I did it on my own and she was just teasing me. The word "toilet" was very difficult for me. I used to pronounce it "twelet." My brother taught me how to say it correctly, "Corey, say 'toy-let'" and I repeated, but it sounded completely stupid to me. But, since everyone said it was right, I eventually made it part of my vocabulary.
These readings also made me think about words, in general. We have specific words for specific things, but in reality they have no significance. If you keep repeating a word, it loses it's meaning and eventually looks weird. I know that everyone has typed out a word on the computer, and it was right, but looked totally wrong to you. We also have those momentary lapses where we don't know how to spell a basic word. I believe it stems back to this insignificance. We use words to try and get a point across (I am not going to go on a huge Lacan rant because this post will be super long), but words are different for everybody. We reinvent language all the time. Just like those people who mishmashed their language with English. That is still a language. "Ebonics" is a legitimate language, certainly it doesn't follow the grammar rules of English, but it has it's own set. So, who's to say that a series of grunts isn't a language?