"common language" and Language LO10630

Manuel Manga (0007015296@mcimail.com)
Mon, 21 Oct 96 14:41 EST

Replying to LO10546

I think Michael McMaster's reply(LO10551) to Malcom Burson questions about
no longer taking "common language" for granted, was an excellent reply,
and Michael covered a lot of linguistic territory in a few brief
paragraphs. When Malcom said " For me, one of the most powerful learnings
in the whole notion of a LO is no longer to take "common language" for
granted, but rather to use the tools so elegantly provided by Argyris and
others to unpack assumptions and inferences, and step by baby step to
create shared language." He reminded me of the different levels and ways
in which we use language and we interpret "Language". Going back to
Michael's reply to Malcom, in it Michael responds to Malcom's concern at
two levels. On one level, Michael explains how to change ordinary language
and make changes in a social group. At another level, Michael explains
language in a more contextual way, when he says " Language is both complex
and adaptive in itself and is the major source of complexity and
adaptation in human beings and their institutions ". This explanation of
language by Michael is contextual/constitutive and it is at the
ontological level. So, on one level Malcolm seeks to use tools and
language to unpack assumptions and inferences and change a social group
toward a LO. However, I was wondering if Malcolm and others reading what
Michael wrote about language at the contextual or ontological level were
thinking. Did others understood language " as the major source of
complexity and adaptation in human beings and their institutions " ? I
pose this question because while it is useful to use language as tools or
to invent new words or vocabularies, there is this other level that I
would like to inquiry more with this community.

Manuel Manga
Organization Design Consultant
<0007015296@mcimail.com>

-- 


Manuel Manga <0007015296@mcimail.com>
 


     Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations
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