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BBI3436 BBI3436 CRITICAL AND CREATIVE CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING THINKING Language and Critical Thinking

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BBI3436 CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING. Language and Critical Thinking. Language and Critical Thinking. Language is important to critical thinking. Language determines how effective one’s argument will be. Language choices can conceal the truth, confuse, mislead, or deceive us. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: BBI3436 CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING

BBI3436BBI3436CRITICAL AND CREATIVE CRITICAL AND CREATIVE

THINKINGTHINKING

Language and Critical Thinking

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Language and Critical Language and Critical ThinkingThinking

Language is important to critical thinking.

Language determines how effective one’s argument will be.

Language choices can conceal the truth, confuse, mislead, or deceive us.

A good critical thinker uses language that meets the needs and expectations of the audience, and is appropriate to the time, place, person, and occasion.

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Four areas of language:Four areas of language:Word choiceAmbiguityDefinitionIntensity

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Word ChoiceWord ChoiceThe words you choose:

◦Affect the way other react to the argument you present.

◦Allow you to indirectly express your “real” feelings about people, events and things in the environment.

◦Gives exactness to detail. ◦Helps the communicator paint a

picture in the audience’s mind. ◦Reduce the chance of

miscommunication.

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AmbiguityAmbiguity◦ Words or expressions that can be understood

in more than one way.

◦ Euphemisms- use of a mild, neutral, evasive, or vague term in place of one considered taboo, offensive, blunt, or unpleasant (“chronologically challenged”, “pre-owned”)

◦ Jargon - language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders. (“cookies”, “bug”, LOL)

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Ambiguity in Language

When the meaning of a word, phrase, or sentence is unclear, we say that it is

“ambiguous”.

Interpreting the issue, conclusion, and reasons is much more difficult when

ambiguous language is used.

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Ambiguity in Language

The nature of language is that it is flexible. Words and phrases can have different meanings in different

contexts.

Sometimes a speaker / writer is ambiguous due to being sloppy with language.

Other times, the ambiguity may be intentional.

In any case, we need to watch out for ambiguous language, and discern the correct meaning before we

can decide if we agree with someone.

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Ambiguous languageAmbiguous language• Interferes with the clear expression of

thoughts. An ambiguous word is a word with more than one (1) meaning that is open to different interpretations.

Examples:

He fed her dog biscuitsThe duck is ready to eatFlying planes can be dangerousThe shooting of the hunter disturbed

him

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AmbiguityAmbiguitydeep can mean profundity (what you have said is very deep), Or it can be used to describe physical depth (this hole is very deep). young (inexperienced or young of age)bank (river bank or financial institution)

Ambiguous language can lead to over-generalization and stereotyping. E.g. “Everyone thinks that democracy is a good thing.” “Young drivers are all alike, inconsiderate and dangerous.”

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Ambiguity Resulting from Confusion of Different Meanings

• Lexical ambiguity - when a word or phrase, in the context of a particular sentence, could refer to two or more properties or things.She put her glasses on the table.

He’s gone to the bank.

• It is sometimes clear from the context which meaning is intended, but not always.Pavarotti is a big opera star.

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Ambiguity Resulting from Confusion Ambiguity Resulting from Confusion of Different Meaningsof Different Meanings

• Referential ambiguity – when the context does not make it clear what a pronoun or quantifier is referring to.Lizzy hit Paula and then she started bleeding – who is bleeding?The boys chased the girls, and they giggled a lot.

• Grouping ambiguity - whenever we refer to a collection of individuals, we must clearly show whether the reference is to the collection as a group or as individualsPoliticians are corrupt – generalisation

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Syntactic AmbiguitySyntactic Ambiguity

Ambiguity because of the structure of the sentence rather than a word or phrase - the words are not confusing but the word order is.

There is more than one way to interpret the grammatical structure.

Example: He chased the girl in his car. What does this mean? Did he chase a girl already inside his car? Or did he chase a girl (perhaps in another car) with his car?

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Vague languageVague language

Using words that are very imprecise and general. Vague words are words that lack a clear and distinct meaning.

Examples:

I had a nice time yesterdayThat is an interesting bookShe is an old personShe is a beautiful girl

As the sun sets the surroundings become dark, but there is no sharp boundary when the surroundings suddenly switch from being bright to being dark. So “dark” and “bright” are vague terms.

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Examples of VaguenessExamples of VaguenessMen burn off 438 calories per

hour gardening.Doctor: The arrhythmia you are

experiencing indicates that you should lay off jogging for awhile.

“Your satisfaction is guaranteed with our two-year limited guarantee.”

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Analysing statements

Does TV violence negatively affect children?

What qualifies as “violence”?

Define “negatively affect”?

“Children” of what ages?

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Identify Key Terms

Which East – Asian countries have the most freedom?

Which countries are part of East – Asia?

China, Japan, Korea? Any others?

Define freedom.

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Ask yourself:

“What does that mean?”

“Could that word / phrase / sentencebe interpreted in more than one way?”

If the answer to the previous question is yes, ask:

“Does the statement still support the conclusion?”

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Definition Avoid problems caused by ambiguity

by defining the terms you are working with .

The definition get’s the sender and the receiver on the same page in order to avoid unnecessary confusion.

Words are not limited to one single meaning.

Most words have multiple meanings, which are categorized as either denotative or connotative .

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Meaning as Meaning as denotationdenotationThe literal, neutral, descriptive

meaning of a word or phrase – the information content or data.

What a word denotes is the thing, person, characteristic, or action to which the word points or refers.

ball blue mowing

Prime Minister University

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Meaning as Meaning as connotationconnotationEmotive meaning - is not necessarily very

emotional, although it can beThis aspect of meaning expresses an

attitude of approval or disapproval. It is thus evaluative. It conveys the feelings or associations connected to the thing named.

Often the connotations depend upon the experiences we have had with an object.

The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.

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ConnotationConnotationSafari, Gravity, XS, Obsession,

Curve“bureaucrat” vs “government

official” vs “public servant”“discriminating” vs

“distinguishing” vs “scoring” vs “sorting” vs “grading”

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Meaning of a wordMeaning of a word

The denotative meaning:

Refers to the way a word is generally used or the meaning that people usually attach to a word.

In a dictionary, definition number one of a word is thought of as the denotative meaning of a word.

The connotative meaning:

Refers to the way a person emotionally responds to it.

Connotative meanings are necessary for humans to express themselves emotionally, and to describe themselves fully.

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There is a funny odour about Pungent.....Pungent, the cheapest scent you can get in your local discount store

• “There is an air of insatiable desire about Shalimar.... Shalimar, the most exquisitely voluptuous perfume on Earth”.

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IntensityIntensity◦ Words or phrases that negatively raise the

emotional level of communication.◦ Demonstrates irreverence, contempt or disrespect. ◦ Words that considered coarse, vulgar, obscene or

offensive. ◦ Intensity of language can be found in three areas: 1. Negative evaluative words - Understood through a

comparison with their opposite (ex:ugly, fat) 2. Strong emotive words - Describe something, but represent

the person’s attitude toward what is being described. (Ex: he is such a loudmouth)

3. Abusive language - Obscenities, name calling, insults, swear words.

****Use of high intensity language= poor critical thinking****

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Patterns of OrganisationPatterns of OrganisationSee pg 59

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USING GRAPHIC ORGANISERUSING GRAPHIC ORGANISER

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►A graphic organizer is a visual representation of knowledge.

►Graphic organisers are ideal tools to support critical thinking.

►They help you organise many different pieces of information into a few logical concepts or ideas.

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►Different types of graphic organisers have been created for different purposes

►However, all graphic organisers show relationships among information, ideas and concepts.

►You must choose the type of graphic organiser that will best help you accomplish your goals

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Clustering Diagram

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Problem-Solution Organiser