{"id":537,"date":"2018-03-02T22:50:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T22:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/writehere\/?post_type=chapter&p=537"},"modified":"2018-07-12T18:39:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T18:39:10","slug":"body-paragraphs","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/chapter\/body-paragraphs\/","title":{"raw":"Body Paragraphs","rendered":"Body Paragraphs"},"content":{"raw":"In his coy opening paragraphs, Justice describes the many uses of language as if they are features of a \u201cnew communications app\u201d he \u201cjust invented.\u201d Justice notes how language use \u201cfacilitates an expanding network of people\u201d and \u201copens up incredible possibilities for creativity and cooperation.\u201d Such clever itemization of language\u2019s many features enables Justice to establish effectively language as a human tool that has at its root the human desire to connect and work together. Though centuries of migration and conflict may have turned the world into a \u201cTower of Babel\u201d in which populations are divided by different languages, \u201call of us living today have a common history\u201d in which language was developed first and foremost to create community.\r\n\r\nJustice stresses that such a created community is often defined by \u201ca commons,\u201d which he defines thusly: \u201cA commons is a level-playing field. Everybody gets to breathe air, and we have that in common with most other species.\u201d He establishes language as one of the first such commons, \u201cavailable to everyone free\u201d and a \u201ccommon way for us to share information and create enduring knowledge.\u201d Thus, whether it is being used to foster cooperation or perpetuate conflict, language has always been a commons accessible to all members who wish to contribute meaningfully to their community.\r\n\r\nJustice defines language as \u201cA method of communication that is available to virtually all humans to use;\u201d a \u201ccommon property, available to everyone free.\u201d Justice thereby establishes language as a common human right and desire\u2014an inherent need that is obvious even in the simple naming and describing of a \u201cproto-language\u201d like \u201cMe Tarzan, you Jane\u201d: \u201cOnce you begin to share information you are creating a common space of understanding amongst you and your fellow speakers.\u201d Even if that common space is used to express difference\u2014Tarzan is not<\/em> Jane\u2014it is still a vital tool that can ensure that even those who do not share opinions, backgrounds, or identities can still share ideas.\r\n\r\nJustice notes that sometimes such differences, even when expressed, still lead to divisions that may seem insurmountable. \u201cWe parcel up land into properties,\u201d Justice writes, marking our divisions from one another. In more extreme cases, we are \u201cseparated permanently by mountains or water barriers\u201d which seem to end definitively any sense or hope of unity: \u201cbecause of our success in outgrowing our original environment we ceased to have a common place and identity.\u201d This insurmountable division seems an unavoidable result of human evolution and prosperity, Justice implies\u2014as the earliest groups of humans thrived in their shared landscape, \u201ceventually, as population grew over generations, a new band would split off.\u201d Such splits would drive groups of humans further afield from one another, resulting in a mutual forgetting of their \u201ccommon place and identity\u201d and likely the \u201cevolution of different languages.\u201d\r\n\r\nYet, Justice claims, even as humans mark their property or separate themselves by mountains and water, it seems inherent in the human creation of place that \u201cmuch land is held in common in the form of parks, trackless wilderness, public rights of way and public spaces.\u201d Justice utilizes much natural imagery when defining \u201ca commons\u201d like language: \u201cThe sunlight that falls to earth is common to all, plants and animals on land, fish and the whales in the sea.\u201d Further, Justice asserts that \u201cHere in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, fresh water is a common resource,\u201d implying even has he invokes the human naming of a region, that this does not override the deeper human tendency to share resources and foster a space that is mutually beneficial.\r\n\r\nThis mutually beneficial space is a worldwide commons manifested and made accessible by language. Despite that fact that \u201cin outgrowing our original environment we ceased to have a common place and identity\u201d and despite this initial \u201coutgrowing\u201d producing varied groups with diverse languages and varying levels of prosperity, Justice still believes that language, that one commons that is accessible to all, can be the \u201clevel-playing field\u201d upon which all groups can interact and share. Like most successful technological innovations, this \u201cnew communications app\u201d is intuitive and accessible, addresses a common need, and possesses the ability to perform task thought previously to be impossible.\r\n\r\nJustice\u2019s cunning misrepresentation of language as a \u201cnew communications app\u201d encourages his readers to consider language in a new way, to shirk off the notions of defeatism and division that often accompany discussions of language and recognize it instead as a \u201cfree\u201d application that is linked ineluctably with the very \u201chumanity and human origins\u201d we have \u201cin common with everyone else alive today.\u201d Viewed in this way, the many languages across the globe present a challenge, but they do not simply create a frustrated and disconnected \u201cTower of Babel.\u201d Instead, they represent a gigantic \u201clevel-playing field\u201d that spans the entire commons that is the \u201cEarth\u2019s biosphere.\u201d","rendered":"

In his coy opening paragraphs, Justice describes the many uses of language as if they are features of a \u201cnew communications app\u201d he \u201cjust invented.\u201d Justice notes how language use \u201cfacilitates an expanding network of people\u201d and \u201copens up incredible possibilities for creativity and cooperation.\u201d Such clever itemization of language\u2019s many features enables Justice to establish effectively language as a human tool that has at its root the human desire to connect and work together. Though centuries of migration and conflict may have turned the world into a \u201cTower of Babel\u201d in which populations are divided by different languages, \u201call of us living today have a common history\u201d in which language was developed first and foremost to create community.<\/p>\n

Justice stresses that such a created community is often defined by \u201ca commons,\u201d which he defines thusly: \u201cA commons is a level-playing field. Everybody gets to breathe air, and we have that in common with most other species.\u201d He establishes language as one of the first such commons, \u201cavailable to everyone free\u201d and a \u201ccommon way for us to share information and create enduring knowledge.\u201d Thus, whether it is being used to foster cooperation or perpetuate conflict, language has always been a commons accessible to all members who wish to contribute meaningfully to their community.<\/p>\n

Justice defines language as \u201cA method of communication that is available to virtually all humans to use;\u201d a \u201ccommon property, available to everyone free.\u201d Justice thereby establishes language as a common human right and desire\u2014an inherent need that is obvious even in the simple naming and describing of a \u201cproto-language\u201d like \u201cMe Tarzan, you Jane\u201d: \u201cOnce you begin to share information you are creating a common space of understanding amongst you and your fellow speakers.\u201d Even if that common space is used to express difference\u2014Tarzan is not<\/em> Jane\u2014it is still a vital tool that can ensure that even those who do not share opinions, backgrounds, or identities can still share ideas.<\/p>\n

Justice notes that sometimes such differences, even when expressed, still lead to divisions that may seem insurmountable. \u201cWe parcel up land into properties,\u201d Justice writes, marking our divisions from one another. In more extreme cases, we are \u201cseparated permanently by mountains or water barriers\u201d which seem to end definitively any sense or hope of unity: \u201cbecause of our success in outgrowing our original environment we ceased to have a common place and identity.\u201d This insurmountable division seems an unavoidable result of human evolution and prosperity, Justice implies\u2014as the earliest groups of humans thrived in their shared landscape, \u201ceventually, as population grew over generations, a new band would split off.\u201d Such splits would drive groups of humans further afield from one another, resulting in a mutual forgetting of their \u201ccommon place and identity\u201d and likely the \u201cevolution of different languages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Justice claims, even as humans mark their property or separate themselves by mountains and water, it seems inherent in the human creation of place that \u201cmuch land is held in common in the form of parks, trackless wilderness, public rights of way and public spaces.\u201d Justice utilizes much natural imagery when defining \u201ca commons\u201d like language: \u201cThe sunlight that falls to earth is common to all, plants and animals on land, fish and the whales in the sea.\u201d Further, Justice asserts that \u201cHere in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, fresh water is a common resource,\u201d implying even has he invokes the human naming of a region, that this does not override the deeper human tendency to share resources and foster a space that is mutually beneficial.<\/p>\n

This mutually beneficial space is a worldwide commons manifested and made accessible by language. Despite that fact that \u201cin outgrowing our original environment we ceased to have a common place and identity\u201d and despite this initial \u201coutgrowing\u201d producing varied groups with diverse languages and varying levels of prosperity, Justice still believes that language, that one commons that is accessible to all, can be the \u201clevel-playing field\u201d upon which all groups can interact and share. Like most successful technological innovations, this \u201cnew communications app\u201d is intuitive and accessible, addresses a common need, and possesses the ability to perform task thought previously to be impossible.<\/p>\n

Justice\u2019s cunning misrepresentation of language as a \u201cnew communications app\u201d encourages his readers to consider language in a new way, to shirk off the notions of defeatism and division that often accompany discussions of language and recognize it instead as a \u201cfree\u201d application that is linked ineluctably with the very \u201chumanity and human origins\u201d we have \u201cin common with everyone else alive today.\u201d Viewed in this way, the many languages across the globe present a challenge, but they do not simply create a frustrated and disconnected \u201cTower of Babel.\u201d Instead, they represent a gigantic \u201clevel-playing field\u201d that spans the entire commons that is the \u201cEarth\u2019s biosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-537","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":191,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":958,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/537\/revisions\/958"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/191"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/537\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/writehere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}