Presentation tok presentation help - language!

[amandaohh]

For my personal/real life example I'm using an excerpt from Lewis Carrol's Through The Looking Glass:

"[...] There's glory for you!"

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"

"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument'," Alice objected.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

I've always had trouble creating KIs and this is as far as I've gotten:

Is it justifiable to say that without a common understanding of language humans would be no better than animals?

is there anyone that could give me any advice as to how to narrow it down or make it a stronger KI? What I want to focus on is the meaning of language, and what I'm worried about is that the question is too general/ it almost becoming a yes or no question.

also - ways of knowing/different perspectives? I've thought about using the tower of babel as one perspective - using the quote "'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do." - one language was too dangerous so God made it so that we could not all understand each other

any thoughts? help, please!

[andsoshewrote]

I like the KI you've chosen. Its definitely unique from my point of view, and because its a bit broader there are a lot of ways you can develop this. My advice would be to make sure you don't focus just on language as a way of knowing...maybe incorporate a few other ways of knowing into there (i.e. emotion, reason, memory, etc.). I don't think its too broad of a topic. Also make sure you talk about the significance and implications of certain circumstances, such as languages/dialects dying out over time, the evolvement of language (i.e. the word "groovy" is no longer used as it was in the '70s) ... maybe talk about the impact of the environment or social situation of a time has on its present language (for example: (this might sound stupid but) a theory I have is that its easier to speak Russian than English when its cold, like ridiculously freezing, because there are less words making up a sentence, and the tendency for English is to use words that can often become redundant).

Just a few suggestions, hope it helps. Good luck