tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post4246753410752027923..comments2024-03-28T21:52:52.100-06:00Comments on Dispatches From Turtle Island: Japanese Conveys Information More Slowly Than Other LanguagesAndrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-54839680038783176172012-04-17T12:06:04.157-06:002012-04-17T12:06:04.157-06:00The effect is probably somewhat true, but the Japa...The effect is probably somewhat true, but the Japanese translation in that paper is also not that great. For example, it uses a lot of first person references "I" which are not used in normal Japanese speech.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-41252262683954035912012-04-17T11:41:32.249-06:002012-04-17T11:41:32.249-06:00In English, you would probably actually say "...In English, you would probably actually say "Wanna go to the store?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-85970748220871248952012-04-17T11:05:03.000-06:002012-04-17T11:05:03.000-06:00In practice, many parts of japanese sentences are ...In practice, many parts of japanese sentences are omitted and understood mutually through context.<br /><br />For example:<br /><br />"Would you like to go to the store?" in english might actually be rendered "Go store?" in Japanese.<br /><br />This makes Japanese fairly difficult for the novice english speaker, since half of what people are saying they simply omit for purposes of brevity.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-55720038520346655202012-04-17T10:49:07.900-06:002012-04-17T10:49:07.900-06:00Alexander, he's basically saying that in langu...Alexander, he's basically saying that in languages with less syllables, people talk faster. That means that the total amount of information transmitted is equivalent to a slow talking, many syllabled language.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-85931883995768257422012-04-17T10:06:26.910-06:002012-04-17T10:06:26.910-06:00Interesting, but it is not clear that this reflect...Interesting, but it is not clear that this reflects spoken forms. Having studied japanese, it always seemed to me that more can be left out of each sentence, and there are additional ways to encode semantic, pragmatic, and speaker-state information that do not exist in English, e.g. in grammatical structures.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-62973193620903044972012-04-17T09:48:31.936-06:002012-04-17T09:48:31.936-06:00In languages other than Japanese, the rate at whic...In languages other than Japanese, the rate at which people speak and the differences in the number of syllables need to convey information that flows largely from the number of sylllables available in the language are basically sufficient to compensate for each other.<br /><br />I an not smart enough to read this sentence... can you please try to clear it up?Alexandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-44233094053642762202012-04-17T02:01:38.224-06:002012-04-17T02:01:38.224-06:00Highly speculatively, and based on living in Japan...Highly speculatively, and based on living in Japan for near 20 years, so quite anecdotally too:-)...<br /><br />Very attuned to other people's emotions as a generalisation. Language, as neurological interaction, is not the information content of words (writing fits this model better) - as you pointed out. <br /><br />My speculation is that there are far more assumptions and 'taken for granted' in Japanese than the few other languages I know, and possibly as a corollary to this as very 'fine' perception of the emotional state of others based on tone and visual indicators.youngdoughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15155148341331873442noreply@blogger.com