man 00:39

I was asked what the difference between human, human being, person, human race, mankind, and man was by my Swiss friend. And being such a loaded question, I had to mull over it for about a day. The following morning, I had my morning coffee and built up the boldness to piece together my scattered thoughts. The following is not meant to be a complete analysis; I did not look into the history and etymology of each word. It is just a primer to a possible research project at a later date.

1) Human(s) was originally a French word which I suppose came into the English Language after a word had already existed for the concept of man and human. French words supplied English with sophisticated nuances and abstract ideas, e.g. beef vs.cow meat, mansion vs. house. Thus, the word human most likely took on this subtly intricate gradient of meaning. Today, the word is used when talking about it as a physical body sans the spirit and emotions, i.e. in the sciences. We do not say the person body or man body but the human body. We are not the person or man race but the human race. It is often used in conjunction with words such as evolution, species and cloning. 

2) Although the word 'human being' and 'human' do share several gradients of meaning, there also seems to be a stark difference in the emotional response of the speaker/listener. Many times, when the question of life and spirituality arises, human being is the favored word.

    What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 
     - Psalms 8:4

     You wonder why your life is screaming, Wonder why we're human beings. 
     - Van Halen

It also seems to be used when contrasting man with a god or an idea of some sort. We step away from being a human for a second and critique the race and find meaning in it.

3) The word person is most often used in daily speech. It is who we see and interact with everyday. "I like that person" or "I saw that person yesterday" are common things we say. This word is from a latin cognate and took on this stoic meaning. (In italian person is 'la persona.') The plural form of person, people, can interestingly be used as a verb as in "the island of Australia was peopled by deported criminals." The word likely started as a noun and was verbified and verbification regularly happens with words that are commonly used. What would be interesting to see is how people came to mean many persons.

4) The human race is normally used to contrast it with other races other than humans. It is frequently used in movies and video games with aliens or monsters. In mythology, there is the elven race, the dwarven race, and the orc race. The human race also refers to all of man as a whole. Statements must be satirical, a general truth, or a critique. Mark Twain says, "The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner."

5) Mankind seems to be used a lot in the telling of stories and histories. It is a word of extremes: triumph, valor, and courage, failure, danger, and weakness. The famous quote "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" succinctly demonstrates that. In contrast, Albert Einstein once said, "We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive." 

6) In its simplest form, man is the male species. It is also the idea that encompasses man and woman. In its more complex form, it includes not all but many of the meanings of the words above. This makes it a very elaborate word and tricky for learners of English. It is most likely the oldest of all the words discussed to have come into the English Language. We see cognates in other Germanic Languages that point to this antiquity. (e.g. der Mann in modern German) 

My speculation is that all the previous words came into the language at different points in time and assimilated certain meanings of the word man. Sometimes the dual usage was unnecessary and one was made obsolete. Other times, the two coexisted peacefully. This process is the reason why it is difficult to concretely narrow down the meaning of each word. I have tried to draw attention to distinct meanings each word contains but am not proposing that they cannot intermingle. Many in fact can be interchanged without significant loss in meaning and nuance. 

no need for responsibility 00:56

There are days when language learning is tiring and seems to have no end. But then there are days when I learn something especially mind-stimulating about a language and it make my brain really excited. So here's a little something for your mind to chew on and hopefully it'll excite you too.

As wonderful as our English language is, we do not have a grammatical structure for the 'impersonal' as they do in the Latin languages. We are forced to use the word 'one' or 'they' when we construct sentences that detaches a particular person or group from an action. For instance, in a sentence such as "One goes to school" we do not know who exactly has gone to school; nonetheless, a general person has gone to school. In Italian, this type of structure is created through the use of the third person pronoun si + third person singular/plural verb conjugation. So the same sentence would go something like "Si va a scuola."

We had a discussion in class about how in Florence, many young Italians use this structure to free themselves from the feeling of responsibility from actions committed that would otherwise be considered less than acceptable. If a kid skips school, goes to the movies instead, and subsequently his mother finds out, he could reply to her angry words with a "non si è andato al cinema" or literally "one did not go the theater." Of course this sounds strange in English, but apparently in Florence it is perfectly fine. Another interesting point comes from one of our phD candidate's research on Italian writings on World War II, especially those dealing with Hitler or Mussolini. She writes that history books are written in this impersonal form so as to perhaps free the government from full responsibility of all the atrocities that took place.

Now, this brings me to Korean and Japanese (henceforth called KJ), the two languages I love the most and how they construct this idea. In the KJ languages, since pronouns are frequently dropped and only picked up in context, the verb becomes the most important part of the sentence. If one asks "Did you eat?" in KJ you would word the same sentence as "Did Eat?" The 'you' is implied because the question is obviously directed at a person. So it is in the verb that changes happen. Now, Korean and Japanese people hate to take credit for things they do. (Whether good or bad.) So, this impersonal structure we have seen in Italian is achieved in the KJ language through intransitivity. What happens when a kid breaks a cup and is faced with telling his mom the truth? "カップが割れてた" or "the cup had been broken (with an implied meaning of when I found it there)." When somebody makes dinner for all his friends he will say "밥이 다 됐어요" or "the food has been cooked." One really important thing to notice here is that the cup and food in the examples take a subject particle when the subject should be the actual person! Furthermore, it would be strange and awkward socially to take full responsibility by saying "I broke the cup" or "I made dinner for you all." The speakers take no responsibility.

huh? 00:25

The other day, I had an interesting conversation with my students about the word 'huh.' Apparently, their previous teacher used the word 'huh' after everything she said and they would laugh everytime. "Did you do your homework, huh?, Where is he going, huh?" I unknowingly used it and out of the blue, they all bursted out in laughter. The previous teacher had never explained to them what it had meant, so I spent the next ten minutes trying to get them to understand. What an undertaking. In the end, we all laughed and agreed that it was quite a strange sound.

plethora of meanings 08:53

'to get'

I was in class the other week and trying to teach this word to my students. We ran into trouble when I realized that this word meant so many different things. This word is pretty much used when there is a transaction of ideas, items, concepts, merchandise etc. I found 28 definitions in the dictionary. Here are a few examples:

1) to buy - I got new shoes yesterday.

2) to receive - Did you get that new gift from your mom?

3) to understand - Do you get today's assignment?

4) to be scolded - Your gonna get it when you come home.

5) to bring - Can you get the newspaper?

6) to cause - Can you get the fire going?

7) to hear - I didn't get your name? What was it again?

8) to seize - Get him!

9) to influence - We will get him to go with us.

10) to prepare - Can you get dinner ready?

11) to affect - That movie got to me.

12) to arrive- I got home very late.

13) to be permitted - Your so lucky you got to meet him.

14) to endure - I wonder if he can get through the winter.

No wonder why people have such a hard time learning English. How in the world are you suppose to understand that this one word can be used in all these situations!