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mutual intelligibility
Mike Lieber (U28550@UICVM.BITNET)
Mon, 28 Nov 1994 23:04:24 CST
This is a gem of a thread. I wish there were more people contributing. I
personally have nothing profound to add, but I'm reading a book that does.
I just got a copy of Mary Catharine Bateson's _Peripheral Vision_, and it's
loaded with snippets and stories, many of them based on her field experiences
in Iran, Israel, and the Philippines, of interaction among people across
cultural and experiential abysses whereby the people involved improvise in
order to communicate with one another. It's about the nature of learning
through pattern recognition and the imporovisational capabilities that people
can accumulate to bring to new situations to create mutual intelligibility.
Like most of her books, it's beautifully written. I'm going to find a way to
use it in my classes. Maybe even make mutual intelligibility a component of
my introductory course, so keep those posts coming.
Mike Lieber
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