tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post8900447563285880681..comments2023-10-30T12:26:15.822+01:00Comments on Research as a Second Language: Ideas and ProseThomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-39374208783182823862010-01-20T19:20:23.225+01:002010-01-20T19:20:23.225+01:00Email me if you want to be a guest poster on stupi...Email me if you want to be a guest poster on stupid motivational tricks some time.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-19760414488439358552010-01-19T21:15:44.972+01:002010-01-19T21:15:44.972+01:00I suppose I'm also worried about the equal and...I suppose I'm also worried about the equal and opposite possibility: some people are able to string words together in imitation of the style of their discipline but are unable, in face to face confrontation, to develop the idea ... sometimes the test here is actually non-verbal. Can you draw a picture or diagram?<br /><br />My point is just that a good thinker might still need to work on his or her prose style, and even a pretty good writer might still need to learn how really to think.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-52418928739820561662010-01-19T20:51:31.375+01:002010-01-19T20:51:31.375+01:00I agree. There could be non-verbal ideas like [I ...I agree. There could be non-verbal ideas like [I think that couch has been moved and I am confused] that even a dog could have. I also agree that the idea is also logically separate from its particular verbal expression. But usually if somebody cannot express the idea verbally at all in at least his or her native language then it doesn't YET exist. It's a pre-idea.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-28308443780661782172010-01-19T20:04:33.671+01:002010-01-19T20:04:33.671+01:00There's probably a sense in which we agree abo...There's probably a sense in which we agree about that. But...<br /><br />... there has to be some difference between an idea and its expression if we are to make sense of both trivial things like the expression of the <i>same</i> idea in <i>different</i> languages, and more significant things like the more or less <i>apt</i> expression of an idea.<br /><br />An idea is not identical with a linguistic form. You can "have" an idea and not yet "know how to express it". Again, there is always the trivial case of the native Danish or Spanish speaker who is struggling to put it in English.<br /><br />I'm trying to get at the (I'd argue) fact that some people are pretty good at having ideas but fail (sometimes out of sheer laziness) to develop the craft of expressing them in words.<br /><br />Also, I would argue that musicians and carpenters and athletes and dancers sometimes display mastery of an "idea" without words, and may not be able to express that same mastery in words.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-6573146481701852222010-01-19T15:41:52.984+01:002010-01-19T15:41:52.984+01:00You don't really have an idea until it takes s...You don't really have an idea until it takes some linguistic form. You might have an intuition, a general feeling about something, but it isn't an idea yet unless it has words associated with it.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.com