The reading that I found most interesting was "How we mean". The reason for this is because of the explanations for languages "perceiving", so as to say, the world differently. By perceiving, I mean identifying the same concepts, objects, and so on, in ways that are different from another language. The comparison with the English language to other languages for referring to family members was a great example.
This knowledge can help make learning a new language more definite as it helps them understand language differences. As helpful as it can be, it can also be frustrating because it demands switching from one language structure to another. For instance in Bengali there are specific words for every single family member; from the eldest cousin to the youngest cousin's cousin. Learning this from an English language mindset is frustrating because you cannot simply say "cousin" since a general word does not exist.
I learned that when a word or a name refers to something very specific without having a synonym, it is monosemic and when a word can have more than one meaning it is polysemic. Furthermore, the complications that arise from relating words to one another is an interesting topic. It seems that there are clauses to everything when it comes to semantics. Knowing these clauses is more related to the culture of a language than it is to the grammatical structures of it. I know that this is a difficulty for me in honing my Bengali because I have limited cultural knowledge of the language. It is difficult for me to understand Bengali jokes or news and shows for that reason. That is why one of my goals is to watch Bengali news and shows in order to familiarize myself with idioms and Bengali speech patterns so that my comprehension in Bengali semantics improves.
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