my homework!

Why play with language? There’s a bison down by the lake
By Guy Cook (The art of English: Everyday creativity) 2006
Reviewed by Christopher Mercer
19/02/2006
Of course the title alone is enough to raise one’s interest in the article, and Guy Cook, explains this right away. The ‘There’s a bison down by the lake view’ put forward by Robert Dunbar (1996) put simply – if one prehistoric hunter could say this to another then their chances of catching the bison increased greatly. The idea is, that humans develop language to convey information. The main focus of the article is that
Guy Cook believes that language has many other uses apart from simply giving and receiving necessary information.

Guy Cook begins his theory by looking at how children use language. The main thrust being, that children don’t use language to purely convey meaning, but often use it for pure pleasure. He uses nursery rhymes , which are nonsensical and have no basis upon real life. He uses the following as an example;
“ Diddle diddle dumpling my son John
Went to bed with his trousers on”. . This example was, interestingly also used by Ronald Carter (Language and creativity:The Art of common Talk p2, 2006) he takes the view that this rhyme is taught as a means to establishing close interpersonal ties, where the rhyme is described as a performance with it’s emphasis on repetition and rhyme, the literal meaning being irrelevant . This aspect of creativity in language-‘performance’ is skipped by Guy Cook at this stage. I find myself disagreeing with both authors. I think that nursery rhymes are in fact short tales/fables/folklore passed down through the years and remembered by children because of their rhymes. The example that Guy Cook gives above is a prime example. Although the story may not at first be apparent , it did originally have a more concrete meaning. A quick check of the OED for ‘Diddle’ gave me the following definition - diddle, v.1 colloq 1. intr. To walk unsteadily, as a child; to toddle; 1632 QUARLES Div. Fancies I. iv. (1660) 3 And when his forward strength began to bloom, To see him diddle up and down the Room! (OED online19/02/2006) I suspect that the rhyme tells us about John, stumbling drunkedly home. Other rhymes such as –‘ring a ring a roses’ demonstrate that nursery rhymes do indeed tell a story..
‘ring a ring a roses,
a pocket full of poses
a-tishoo, a-tishoo
we all fall down’
…this one being about the Bubonic Plague. I have taught my own children a wide variety of nursery rhymes, the reason being that they help children develop their language skills, but yes as Ronald Carter puts it, also to develop a closer relationship with them.
Guy Cook tells us that children prefer computer games, TV and bedtime stories more than mundane tasks such as maths and homework. Children may indeed prefer playtime to ‘worktime’-as do I, but I found his comments lacked any real depth, they were even speculative, sweeping all children with the same brush. What research had he made about children’s language use and play? The results of research may well bear out his suppositions, I for one would be eager to learn more about how(and why?) children develop language.
Next, Guy Cook acquaints us with the features of language play, these are characterized in three steps- 1st – Repetition, of words, rhymes, stories, jokes.
2nd- Use of fictional worlds or situations
3rd – Social Function-bonding and exclusion.
These steps do provide, in my humble opinion, a good basis upon which to study children’s language use.
The article then moves on to possibly its main point- adults and language play. Guy Cook first looks at adults private language play, dismissing the play of children as just being a stage in their development due to the fact that adults continue this play. He uses valentine’s messages and lovers baby talk as examples. I’m not sure they are as private as he infers. He also maintains that adults share children’s love of fiction-TV (Drama, Soap operas) Pop songs, and the internet which he asserts is used mainly for games chat rooms and fantasies. Here, I must cry- where is the evidence? Where are the statistics?
Okay, in regards to television the evidence can easily be found and will most likely support Guy Cook, but what about the new craze for ‘Reality TV’? His sweeping statement about internet use astounded me, and why is ‘chat’ fictional? I looked for some evidence either way and found the following top 50 websites published by ComScore Media Metrix(http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?id=710) (fig1) a respected web research company used by the BBC(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2867855.stm) 20.03.03 The top 20 internet sites comprise of amongst others- Ebay, WalMart, New York Times, The Weather Channel , Apple computers, and AT&T – none offering gaming, chat or fictional content. I actually came to the opposite conclusion regarding people’s use of the internet- people use it to find information and to communicate with others. Also I checked the equivalent of Nielsen: Alexa, another ratings agency see- Top English Language Sites( Updated Daily) 1. Yahoo! www.yahoo.com - 2. Microsoft Network (MSN) www.msn.com 3. Google www.google.com 4. EBay www.ebay.com 5. Passport.net www.passport.net - 6. Myspace www.myspace.com - 7. Amazon.com www.amazon.com - 8. Microsoft Corporation www.microsoft.com - 9. Google UK www.google.co.uk 10. BBC Online www.bbc.co.uk (http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500) 2/20/2006
Of course , a lot of users will play games and live out their fantasies , but without evidence to the contrary I believe these groups are amongst the minority.





Figure 1.
Top 25 Properties December 2005 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank Property Unique Visitors
(000)
Total Internet Users 170,285
1 Yahoo! Sites 127,132
2 MSN-Microsoft Sites 116,665
3 Time Warner Network 116,381
4 Google Sites 93,124
5 eBay 74,814
6 Amazon Sites 57,604
7 Ask Jeeves 42,440
8 Wal-Mart 38,069
9 Viacom Online 36,728
10 New York Times Digital 34,335
11 Myspace.com 32,209
12 Verizon Communications Corp. 32,063
13 CNET Networks 31,407
14 Target Corporation 31,178
15 Weather Channel, The 30,512
16 Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) 29,939
17 Apple Computer, Inc. 27,906
18 United Online, Inc 27,906
19 AT&T, Inc. 26,109
20 Vendare Media 24,706
21 Lycos, Inc. 24,672
22 Monster Worldwide 24,443
23 Best Buy Sites 23,976
24 Shopzilla.com Sites 23,172
25 Overstock.com 22,917









Guy Cook does state that although we may play with language privately, we use this language play to assume a group identity-shared hobbies, ideas, to create and keep relationships. He then moves on to discuss our language play in public, especially advertisements, but also songs, jokes and graffiti. He continues to draw parallels to child’s play, but it is at this point I ask myself- do adults copy children? Or do children copy adults? I came to the conclusion that it doesn’t really matter if we call language play ‘child’s play’ or not, it is more important to understand why we play with our language. Guy Cook highlights an example of language play- ‘verbal duelling’, between different members of society, most notably barristers and politicians. It is really only here that Guy Cook reveals to us his real theory. As we head towards the conclusion we are left with the feeling that we have been taken upon a ride purely to awaken our interest in the task at hand.
Does ‘play’ have a more profound use? Can it be just to help us find the bison? Guy Cook sets in motion the more complex issue of language and play and directs us to look at creativity –creative thinking, poems and song. He suggests that our use of creativity may enable us to expand ourselves and therefore humanity by enabling the mind to contemplate beyond its experiences. He argues that through creativity we are able to rebel against conformity and become liberated. The last few centuries have certainly proved this to be the case. Literature has often been used to establish ideas alien to people before e.g-Animal Farm-George Orwell, Vindication of the Rights of Women- Mary Wollstonecraft. Guy Cook uses Bob Dylan and Martin Luther King as examples, but the point is much the same, our use of language can influence the whole of society. Language ,creativity and advancement are linked.
To conclude Guy Cook accepts that language play actually is related to ‘ there’s a bison down by the lake’ in that use of creative language endears us to other people and like animals, it teaches us skills we may need to survive at the most basic level and at a species level. As well as this we need language to express ourselves, to create relationships, group cohesion and to create individuality.
My own conclusion is that this article ingeniously takes us through the ‘lifetime’ of language and whets our appetites for more on the subject of language and creativity and indeed humanity. Creativity and ‘performance’ are briefly looked at, and I believe that’s where we can find a deeper insight into these theories. If you have an interest in how we use, and why we use our language as we do, then this article is definitely a good place to start.







Bibliography/references



Book Title Author Editor Year Chapter Publisher edition Article/reading page
Language and creativity:The Art of common Talk Ronald Carter 2006 1 Routledge 2nd introduction 2
The Art Of English:Everyday creativity Janet Maybin, Joan Swann 2006 1-3 Palgrave Macmillan 1st
The Art Of English:Everyday creativity Janet Maybin, Joan Swann 2006 1 Palgrave Macmillan 1st
The Art Of English:Everyday creativity Ronald Carter Janet Maybin, Joan Swann 2006 1 Palgrave Macmillan 1st Extracts from common language :corpus,creativity and cognition 29
The Art Of English:Everyday creativity Guy Cook Janet Maybin, Joan Swann 2006 1 Palgrave Macmillan 1st Why play with language? 37
The Art Of English:Everyday creativity Lynne Cameron Janet Maybin, Joan Swann 2006 1 Palgrave Macmillan 1st Metaphor in everyday language 46
The Art Of English:Everyday creativity Joan Swann Janet Maybin, Joan Swann 2006 1 Palgrave Macmillan The art of the everyday 3-29
The Art Of English:Everyday creativity-study guide 1 Alan Owen 2006 1 Open University
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500
20.2.2006 Alexa.com Top 500 websites
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2867855.stm
20.03.03 bbc Iraq conflict hits websites hard
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?id=710
19.02.06 comscore Top 50 websites
OED online
http://dictionary.oed.com/ 19.2.06 Oxford