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The Use and Misuse of Language
Scholars discuss the nature of semantics, the problems and characteristics of contemporary communication, and man's linguistic behavior. Bibliogs
- GenresLanguageNonfiction
240 pages, paperback
First published July 1, 1967
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108 people want to read
About the author
S.I. Hayakawa
40 books34 followersSamuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a Canadian born American academic and political figure of Japanese ancestry. He was an English professor, served as president of San Francisco State University and then a United States Senator from California from 1977 to 1983.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 23, 2011
So here we have an interesting collection of articles from the early days of the original (and only?) journal on General Semantics. This meta-discipline comprising language, philosophy, sociology, psychology, media arts, marketing, and a host of other pseudo-sciences has a sordid history to be sure but honestly, this anthology does not exemplify the controversy. Frankly, many of these are rather thought-provoking pieces and the layer of bullshit is rather light. I attribute this to the clearly masterful editorialization of Hayakawa who is also well represented in the material itself. There are basically four themes of culture organized here consisting of interpersonal communication, media, the arts, and the last grouping is a selection of creative, non-objective pieces.
This is clearly a modernist philosophy embedded deeply in the modern age. From the construction of the thought in the pieces, to the language employed, to the topics, right down to the font used, the 1950s (the golden age of modernity) is screaming in this text. That said, many of the big ideas that can be gleaned completely pre-date the post-modernists. Semantics itself is a key idea of the post-modernists, as well as its implications in language. I dare say they further draw the lines regularly into how these languages that individuals create for themselves significantly impact behavioral patterns and thought processes. Many times while reading I found my self comparing these ideas to the not-yet-formulated ideas of Foucault, Derrida, and Baudrilliard and wondering how much of Korzybski and the like they had read.
I think the two hidden gems in here are the final two pieces. The Art of Psychoanalysis is a rather interesting piece in breaking down the hegemony of psychoanalysis and the argument can easily be expanded into everyday life. In this piece, the author shows how the whole point of this type of therapy is involved in controlling the subject through a series of explicitly dominating gambits to bend them to their will. So that the analyst can make all kinds of wildly ridiculous analogies and symbol definitions that the patient would never have made nor probably should have. This kind of thing happens in all kinds of interpersonal behaviors today from the workplace to dating. The last piece is called Language and Truth. This one is truly the most interesting for in it, in a rather poetic way, the author describes clearly the way most folks delude themselves into thinking what they want to believe despite the evidence against them because its what they want to believe. This is the sin of ignorance in light of the truth and sadly is the way this world works in our post-modern age. Despite the efforts of this writings, people have chosen ignorance and self-gratification over the truth even in light of this very fact!
There are certainly other interesting pieces. The pieces on interpersonal communication show examples of how and why people who speak different personal languages as well as actual languages have such a tough time communicating in society. Implicitly it explains why in today's world there is so much segregation of thought so that group think is the all-pervasive mode of behavior. The pieces on media sadly show how the modern media was shaping consent and using language as a cudgel to bludgeon the modern human. A fact the post-modern media has literally turned into a mind control technique. And the pieces on Art implicitly show the ways the abstract symbols we consume in our lives are probably the biggest shapers of our thoughts. It took me a bit to understand why two pieces on cars was in the section on "The Arts" but that last sentence clearly explains it. As an aside, I find it interesting the name dropping of LHR in one of the pieces on science fiction; i'd say its far from a glowing appeal of his work.
Although the General Semanticists have been likened to wackos like Scientologists and other culty groups. I think this is just an effect of using-your-ideology-against-you kind of thing which is also a contemporary tool of control. In these pieces these guys seem to be trying to warn us how not to be trapped by our own language which shapes how we think which shapes how we behave which shapes how this world is perceived and created. Instead, we have become prisoners of this very idea due to our own selfish desires causing much turmoil and tragedy.
It is implied a few times in this book that contemporary culture needs some psychological therapy. When you look around at the selfishness, greed, ignorance, and depravity in the world today and disconnect them from your own behaviors I'd say that is the number one place to start. But for our society to be positively changed, we could all use a little therapy and not the psychoanalytical kind. This book may well help you in seeing how you are your own worst enemy and how you can help solve the problems of the world we live in by first looking at how you explain the world in your own words.
This is clearly a modernist philosophy embedded deeply in the modern age. From the construction of the thought in the pieces, to the language employed, to the topics, right down to the font used, the 1950s (the golden age of modernity) is screaming in this text. That said, many of the big ideas that can be gleaned completely pre-date the post-modernists. Semantics itself is a key idea of the post-modernists, as well as its implications in language. I dare say they further draw the lines regularly into how these languages that individuals create for themselves significantly impact behavioral patterns and thought processes. Many times while reading I found my self comparing these ideas to the not-yet-formulated ideas of Foucault, Derrida, and Baudrilliard and wondering how much of Korzybski and the like they had read.
I think the two hidden gems in here are the final two pieces. The Art of Psychoanalysis is a rather interesting piece in breaking down the hegemony of psychoanalysis and the argument can easily be expanded into everyday life. In this piece, the author shows how the whole point of this type of therapy is involved in controlling the subject through a series of explicitly dominating gambits to bend them to their will. So that the analyst can make all kinds of wildly ridiculous analogies and symbol definitions that the patient would never have made nor probably should have. This kind of thing happens in all kinds of interpersonal behaviors today from the workplace to dating. The last piece is called Language and Truth. This one is truly the most interesting for in it, in a rather poetic way, the author describes clearly the way most folks delude themselves into thinking what they want to believe despite the evidence against them because its what they want to believe. This is the sin of ignorance in light of the truth and sadly is the way this world works in our post-modern age. Despite the efforts of this writings, people have chosen ignorance and self-gratification over the truth even in light of this very fact!
There are certainly other interesting pieces. The pieces on interpersonal communication show examples of how and why people who speak different personal languages as well as actual languages have such a tough time communicating in society. Implicitly it explains why in today's world there is so much segregation of thought so that group think is the all-pervasive mode of behavior. The pieces on media sadly show how the modern media was shaping consent and using language as a cudgel to bludgeon the modern human. A fact the post-modern media has literally turned into a mind control technique. And the pieces on Art implicitly show the ways the abstract symbols we consume in our lives are probably the biggest shapers of our thoughts. It took me a bit to understand why two pieces on cars was in the section on "The Arts" but that last sentence clearly explains it. As an aside, I find it interesting the name dropping of LHR in one of the pieces on science fiction; i'd say its far from a glowing appeal of his work.
Although the General Semanticists have been likened to wackos like Scientologists and other culty groups. I think this is just an effect of using-your-ideology-against-you kind of thing which is also a contemporary tool of control. In these pieces these guys seem to be trying to warn us how not to be trapped by our own language which shapes how we think which shapes how we behave which shapes how this world is perceived and created. Instead, we have become prisoners of this very idea due to our own selfish desires causing much turmoil and tragedy.
It is implied a few times in this book that contemporary culture needs some psychological therapy. When you look around at the selfishness, greed, ignorance, and depravity in the world today and disconnect them from your own behaviors I'd say that is the number one place to start. But for our society to be positively changed, we could all use a little therapy and not the psychoanalytical kind. This book may well help you in seeing how you are your own worst enemy and how you can help solve the problems of the world we live in by first looking at how you explain the world in your own words.
January 21, 2023
This is a sometimes interesting anthology of articles and talked from a journal on General Semantics and the body's meetings. Especially the talks seem to have lost sparkle in the transcription. Maybe a quality issue to be explained by a general semanticist?
Editor Hayakawa has said, "My deepest debt [[book:Language in Action|15792683]] is to the General Semantics ('non-Aristotelian system') of Alfred Korzybski. I have also drawn heavily upon the works of other contributors to semantic thought..." Comments and criticisms on Korzybski are interesting here, but are only a seasoning. "SEMANTIC DIFFICULTIES IN. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION" by Edmund S. Glenn is very interesting for parsing an actual day in the life of the UN Security Council and the subtleties of meaning transformed after passage through the admittedly highly effective UN translators. Hayakawa himself provides, for me, and probably as a music enthusiast, the most engaging piece, "Popular Songs vs. The Facts of Life". He concluded that "The blues tend to be extensionally oriented, while. Popular songs tend to exhibit grave, even pathological intensional orientations." OK, I am still trying to understand that. What will stick with me is the application of speech pathologist Wendell Johnson IFD cycle: I, unrealistic expectations and ideals, lead to F, frustrations, which discourage us, and may delude us with even less realistic expectations or ideal; the IFD can quickly become viciously circular. Probably the IFD cycle affects almost everyone to some degree and Hayakawa uses this to analyze blues songs from W. C. Handy, Bessie Smith, etc.
Editor Hayakawa has said, "My deepest debt [[book:Language in Action|15792683]] is to the General Semantics ('non-Aristotelian system') of Alfred Korzybski. I have also drawn heavily upon the works of other contributors to semantic thought..." Comments and criticisms on Korzybski are interesting here, but are only a seasoning. "SEMANTIC DIFFICULTIES IN. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION" by Edmund S. Glenn is very interesting for parsing an actual day in the life of the UN Security Council and the subtleties of meaning transformed after passage through the admittedly highly effective UN translators. Hayakawa himself provides, for me, and probably as a music enthusiast, the most engaging piece, "Popular Songs vs. The Facts of Life". He concluded that "The blues tend to be extensionally oriented, while. Popular songs tend to exhibit grave, even pathological intensional orientations." OK, I am still trying to understand that. What will stick with me is the application of speech pathologist Wendell Johnson IFD cycle: I, unrealistic expectations and ideals, lead to F, frustrations, which discourage us, and may delude us with even less realistic expectations or ideal; the IFD can quickly become viciously circular. Probably the IFD cycle affects almost everyone to some degree and Hayakawa uses this to analyze blues songs from W. C. Handy, Bessie Smith, etc.
April 14, 2009
Both theoretical and practical essays in language use. They cover topics ranging from the art of communication to issues in general semantics. They represent the thinking of scholars who discuss the nature of semantics, the problems and characteristics of contemporary communication, and man's linguistic behavior. Consistent with the experience of Hayakawa over his years of immersion in the theories of Alfred Korzybski, founder of general semantics. This is a good collection for anyone interested in language from a variety of points of view.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews