I hate to over-analyze humour, but I'm going to anyway.
The punch line to the video - about the language being English - tells us something about language. Obviously, she was just copying the verbal sounds that she had heard (and perhaps her perception of the sounds was influenced by knowledge of her own language) and her mimicry was quite obviously imperfect. But had she been able to copy the sounds and intonation of English perfectly, would we say that she knows how to speak English? Beyond saying the words correctly, how could we test someone's knowledge of a language?
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If there was a like button on your blog, i would click it.
ReplyDeleteI hate to over-analyze humour, but I'm going to anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe punch line to the video - about the language being English - tells us something about language. Obviously, she was just copying the verbal sounds that she had heard (and perhaps her perception of the sounds was influenced by knowledge of her own language) and her mimicry was quite obviously imperfect. But had she been able to copy the sounds and intonation of English perfectly, would we say that she knows how to speak English? Beyond saying the words correctly, how could we test someone's knowledge of a language?