Noam Chomsky lecture in UCD

by rojos Thu Jan 19, 2006 01:22

There is no such thing as tone daef. The inflections, pitch, timbre and phonetic of everyday communication is far more complex than arteficial music by Frederick Chopin or Dizzie Gillespie.

Every day, we compose lyrical phrases and pieces, but the extent to which they can be called trully original is miniscule, since they draw so heavily on pre-existing structure.

Contexts suah as concentration, blood-sugar levels, affinity to peers and family; sobriety, contriving conniving advertisers; the reach of what we say; are all contributory factors to the real reason for linguistic change - our ever-changing (and not as unique as we'd like them to be) environments.

Our linguistic genius is one of mimicary, with a dash of adaptability. As complex as speech is, we refine it further into accents to differentiate ourselves, or conversely, to identify with one or more acquaintences.

Language is the fabric of thought, yet we think through accents, let alone dialects or languages.

We may have verbal combinations unusual to our individual histories, but then, perceived creativity has always been more down to luck than genius.

To varying degrees, our individual freedom is the real necessary illusion. Some think they've found it in Irish democracy and their clerical job at the bank. Others are left with little recourse but to seek it on a more abstract or esoteric plain; one which negates the structures which bind us.

Only after forming opinions on our intrinsic brilliance, could Chomsky become a life-long critic of powerful institutions which bind us.

As part of the institutional malaise, some agents are more powerful than others - as all academics should know. Iconaclism shouldn't be perpetuated by the 'Left'; or do workers need heroes to speak for them?

by Whist Fri Jan 13, 2006 22:08

Extra may refer to:

Extra (drama), a character who has no role or purpose other than to appear in the background of a scene.

The Extra Girl, a 1923 film about a small-town girl who comes to Hollywood and becomes an extra in her attempt to achieve stardom.

Extra, a tabloid television program made in the United States.

The British sitcom Extras, written by and starring Ricky Gervais.

A special printing of a newspaper containing important news that has occurred since the last scheduled print run. In modern times, however, the availability of radio, television and the internet has meant extra editions are not very common.

Extra (cricket), a run scored in the sport of cricket by any means other than a batsman hitting the ball.

Extra Flugzeugbau, a German manufacturer of aerobatic aircraft founded by Walter Extra.
Extra, a brand of chewing gum.

The Venezuelan newspaper Extra.

And last but not least, for updated info on the Chomsky lectures (alot of it on this thread but a little extra to read about):

Tues 17th: http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73781

Thurs 19th: http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73523

Fri 20th:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73780

by iosaf Mon Jan 09, 2006 13:13

If I was in dublin, (which I'm not) but I'll catch him again somewhere else. Chomsky first presented his "GB" or "government binding" theory of linguistics in 1981. & it represented a fine tuning of his ideas which had been strongly attacked in the 1970's by the "Generative Semanticists". It was the first time Chomsky demostrated his ability to "rethink". A very important ability for an intellectual and academic. It is also a telling clue to the sucess of the Chomsky brand.
By his reworking of GB in the 80s, most opponents had dropped their objections, _not_ because they were wrong, but because they ran out of steam, and he proved to be the more embracing and flexible thinker. He is a very tenacious doggèd man, who constantly reworks his own thought. For example, when it was pointed out that semantics wasn't really dealt with in his Syntactic Structure's theory, Chomsky went off, had a think and incorporated Katz's semantic ideas into his standard theory. Likewise he brought Fillmore's semantic case grammar into the semantic components of that theory.

I live and work in a world at the cusp of new language, where semiotic significance has now been internalised and reified. everyday I might leave on various "internet sites" such meaningless symbols as "@" and "+" and "($/€)" and furthermore see them used on posters, in the "subverts" we have promoted, which attempt to supercede the dominance of one language. In the last years we have introduced through tenacious repetition words such as "precarity" to the English language to improve on the restricted and time referential and american cultural hegomonic "mac job". Chomsky and all the others who have worked on developing linguistic and psycholinguistic theory have always been on the shelf assisting us in that.

You see, at end, he's much more interesting for his "Day Job". If you get to ask him questions, try and ponder one on the language of our movement. We will not change the world in "english" alone.

by . Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:13

Prof Chomsky will in fact be delivering at least four different addresses in Dublin AFAIK.

There are three lectures being given in UCD, on the 17th, 19th and 20th. The lecture on the 18th was supposed to be in Trinity but was moved to the RDS due to space considerations. I believe it's titled "The War on Terror"

The talk on the 17th is in O'Reilly Hall in UCD and is titled " Democracy Promotion: Reflections on Intellectuals and the state". It isn't ticketed but seats are limited, probably to about 800 - 1000.

The talk on the 19th is being run by the Literary and Historical Society in conjunction with the Philosophy society. It's in Theatre L an Arts and is only open to members of the two societies. The title is "Stark, Dreadful, Inescapable: The Question of Survival"

The 20th is a specialist Linguistics lecture titled "Language and Thought". Its being run by the School of Philosophy and school of Linguistics in UCD. Its not really general interest, contact UCD School of Philosophy for details. The UCD main number is 01 716 0000

by non anarcho type Sat Jan 07, 2006 18:48

I hear on the grapevine workers solidarity movement have a private meeting with chomsky i would advise you to contact them for details.

by Revolt Video Sat Jan 07, 2006 04:35 revoltvideo at hushmail dot com

Doh!

I don't know where I got the L&H thing from. It's not them at all.

Kev, if you could pass on the emails I'd appreciate it.

by Revolt Video Sat Jan 07, 2006 04:27 revoltvideo at hushmail dot com

Two different events I know. This one being organised by the UCD Literary and Historical Society

I went to their website http://www.literaryandhistorical.com/

but I couldn't find any contact details. After checking again they to have them on the site but its easy to miss the link on the bottom right of the page....it's tiny!

I did eventually get through to Amnesty Ireland...they have people filming the speech already but they are not sure if the video will be made public at all?!?

Again apologies for the confusing post.

auditor@literaryandhistorical.com was the email address I found. If you've got one for the organisers please send it on.

Sound.

by kevin - imc éire Fri Jan 06, 2006 20:12

You have to be a member of Amnesty International (Ireland Branch) to be on the ticket list for the Chomsky talk. Their deadline for joining in order to be guaranteed a space in the RDS was before Christmas.

This one and the Thursday one are being organised by different groups. Contact them directly if you're interested in filming it. I can send you the email addresses of the organisers of this talk if you want.

by Revolt Video Fri Jan 06, 2006 18:35 revoltvideo at hushmail dot com

It would be great to document the event. I even tried emailing and ringing amnesty but just got a generic response about how they were to busy to repond?!?

This really should be covered as much as possible.

by James - WSM - Pesonal Capacity Thu Dec 22, 2005 20:21

He's talking on a number of different topics, to the best of my knowledge, hence the different dates. Some politics, some philosophy and linguistics.

by redjade Thu Dec 22, 2005 18:37

Dec 18th
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73134

Is he here for more than one day? its repeated several time on the indy calender.

by indy audio head Thu Dec 22, 2005 17:57

Heya, can you please supply some contact details for whoever is organising this event, such as a phone number or an email address. Would like to get in touch with you about the possibility of recording the talk for IMC audio.