Samantha Gordon

ENG110

Responses to Gee and Cuddy

Question 2:

When Gee wrote, “While you can teach someone linguistics, a body of knowledge, you can’t teach them to be a linguist.”, this statement relates to similar fields such as being a sociologist, a veterinarian, biologist etc…That is true because it takes a certain kind of mind for each of those fields. It’s in the genetics and its about what you value in life. Those are inherently part of you, it’s just something becomes you. For example, Gee stated that “a discourse is a sort of identity kit” (Gee LDLI), just like linguistics, it becomes and identity. How you speak, how you represent yourself more holistically begins to matter more and more.

Question 3:

Gee breaks down discourse into two different branches. One primary and the other secondary. Primary is primitive. Gee likes to describe it has “the one we first use to make sense of the world..” (Gee LDLI). It’s more of the primitive interactions that have built up within relationships such as family, friends, lover, the “intimates” (Gee LDLI). Secondary discourse are discourses acquired later in life through schools, institutions community groups and etc. Gee is also big on how discourses are extremely similar to language. “Even less so than languages, and hardly anyone ever fluently acquired a second language sitting in a classroom..” (Gee LDLI). That is why she is so distinct on dominant and nondominant factors due to the similarities.

Question 5:

In Cuddy’s research she accurately justified how important nonverbal communication is in today’s society. To those studying discourse, this would be extremely valuable to them because nonverbal communication is still communication, just a different type of language. People studying discourse would find stronger research to support their types of discourses; primary and secondary because interactions are a big part of communication and for them to see the effects of the mind and body would support their own research. “It’s language, so we think about communication. When we think about communication, we think about interactions.” (Cuddy Ted Talk).