Mindscape 203 | N.J. Enfield on Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists

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Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript: www.preposterousuniverse.com/...
We describe the world using language - we can’t help it. And we all know that ordinary language is an imperfect way of communicating rigorous scientific statements, but sometimes it’s the best we can do. Linguist N.J. Enfield argues that the difficulties run more deeply than we might ordinarily suppose. We use language as a descriptive tool, but its origins are found in more social practices - communicating with others to express our feelings and persuade them to agree with us. As such, the very structure of language itself reflects these social purposes, and we have to be careful not to think it provides an unfiltered picture of reality.
N.J. Enfield received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Melbourne. He is currently a professor of linguistics and Director of the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre at the University of Sydney. His recent book is Language vs. Reality: Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists.
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[@Doge00]

Sean carroll you should have got noble prize, amazing work man.
Helped me understanding universe and life.

[@Entertainment-jb4iv]

Yep

[@Mutual_Information]

Excellent conversation. Anyone who translates from what people want into what computers understand... appreciates what's being discussed here.

[@daithiocinnsealach1982]

Language is ambiguous and open to interpretation by it's very nature. This is why there are thousands of Christians denominations all claiming to hold the true interpretation of the Bible. And why they deem it necessary to declare that the infallible Holy Spirit interprets the Bible for them in some way.

[@rumidude]

Absolutely loved this podcast!

[@scottsofardlair13]

The author is a wise man. Humans don't understand language especially our politicians, who persuade us in a way that promotes them and not the general public who regularly swallow their bias.
Teaching our younger people to recognise biased thinking might be a plan.

[@scottsofardlair13]

The interplay between science and the Law is an interesting subject. We always need to question what people actually mean.

[@ScotClose]

I’m a little surprised that David Bohm didn’t come up in this episode (or others where Sean has discussed language). Bohm’s book, “Wholeness and the Implicate Order” talks about language. He says that making verbs more significant than nouns would improve language.

[@peterz53]

Excellent ! Maybe Scientist v Storyteller instead of Lawyer. Some scientists are also great storytellers (e.g. Sagan, Brownowski). Just check out the number of excellent books and videos in which scientists use language creativily to convey deep and often romantic concepts.

[@Doge00]

👑🥇🏆💰💐💐💐

[@joshua3171]

Soviets had lawyers 2

[@michaelsiler7732]

I enjoy hearing you speak words. Sometimes you'll say "a whole nuther." Nuther's not a word.

[@rumidude]

Actually it is a word. It may not be a standard word accepted by Merriam-Webster or the Oxford dictionaries, but it is a word nonetheless.

[@michaelsiler7732]

@@rumidude
lol

[@mitchkahle314]

No language can be used to accurately describe music or convey how music sounds or feels. No more than any language can be used to accurately describe or convey color.

[@7star7storm7]

A Portuguese word : Saudade .. accurately describes the way some songs make me feel

[@rossmcleod7983]

We also have appalling memories for colour, so no need for a comprehensive vocabulary for it. Weirdly, the ancient Greeks had no name for blue.

[@elizondorj]

Musical notation is a type of language that accurately describes how to produce a particular musical piece.