Language, Texts and Technology Where are we going with this? Created by Brett Oppegaard for Washington State University's DTC 375 class, fall 2009

Defining the terms: What is language? Main Entry: lan·guage Pronunciation: \ ˈ laŋ-gwij, -wij\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French langage, from lange, langue tongue, language, from Latin lingua — more at TONGUE Date: 14th century TONGUE 1 a : the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community b (1) : audible, articulate, meaningful sound as produced by the action of the vocal organs (2) : a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings (3) : the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings (4) : the means by which animals communicate (5) : a formal system of signs and symbols (as FORTRAN or a calculus in logic) including rules for the formation and transformation of admissible expressions (6) : MACHINE LANGUAGE 1 2 a : form or manner of verbal expression; specifically : STYLE b : the vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or a department of knowledge c : PROFANITY 3 : the study of language especially as a school subject 4 : specific words especially in a law or regulation MACHINE LANGUAGE STYLE PROFANITY Courtesy of Merriam-Webster.com

Defining the terms: What are texts?

This is text, of course And so is this: Courtesy of hudsonshakespeare.org

This is text, of course And so are these: Courtesy of Cssvault.com

This is text, of course And so is this: Courtesy of DeviantArt.com

This is text, of course And so is this: Courtesy of h-net.org

This is text, of course And so is this: Courtesy of cdli.ucla.edu

And because of this … So is this: Courtesy of nerdtests.com

And because of this … And this:

And because of this … And this:

Defining the terms: What is technology? What do fire, the wheel and the Internet have in common? “Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its environment.” - Wikipedia.

Defining the terms: Who are we? “Man is the symbol-using (symbol- making, symbol misusing) animal, inventor of the negative …” - Kenneth Burke

Now, we're getting somewhere What do these things have in common? أ (in Arabic) א (in Hebrew) (in binary code) A (in the English alphabet) D (in Caesar’s cipher)

Ciphers / codes / languages Caesar’s cipher (abt 50 B.C., letter+3) Freemasons’ cipher (16th century) Perro, chien, hund … dog

What do you mean by: dog How big? What color? What breed? What kind of temperment? How old? What's the dog's name?