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How has human communication evolved over time?
Hi, everyone. I am a student, and I'm currently researching a topic in school about human communication, the title is my inquiry question. I know that people don't usually discuss about this on Duolingo. But since this is a language study app, I thought that I could get some help from here. Some questions that I want to survey/ask are:
How do you think we communicate across cultures?
What common language do you think we all use? Is there a universal language other than English? For example, how do people with communication disabilities communicate to others, and maybe how do people across different cultures communicate with each other, etc.
Why do you think there are different languages/dialects in the world?
What do you think about the evolution of human communication and how do you feel about it?
If you are not sure on how to respond, do you know anyone that I can contact to get responses? For example, professionals, specialists, etc. Please provide their contact details to me. I would really appreciate it if I can get some responses for this as it will help me get accurate and relevant information to support my research. Thank you very much!
10 Comments
EliasPitts and WolfWhispe1 both make a good point here, and that is *technology has changed human communication." (Or, if you need a thesis question instead, it could be "how has technology changed human communication".)
Your current topic is way too huge. You could write a library full of books trying to cover it. However, if you break it down to a much smaller topic area, you could probably boost your focus. And, even while looking at how technology has altered how we communicate" could also fill a library, it is still a much more focused topic.
To narrow it down even further, you could focus on how technology has changed how people communicate across cultures. For instance, people who have broad access to the internet have more access to people who are different from themselves if they choose to. So, what does that communication look like? It looks like images, words, videos, music, food, and even broader: narratives. Just like words are more than random letters, how words are put together is not random. And, even messages are composed differently, depending on the audience, if the messenger is skilled. Can the internet make us more skilled at communicating with culturally diverse audiences?
You see, if you narrow your focus, it can help you to keep narrowing your focus until you have something more manageable for a single paper. :)
Good luck! ^_^
A big topis and some Interesting questions!
I can say from personal experience where I ended up unexpectly having to work instructing people (manual labour type job) that did not speak any English that pointing at something and getting the word for it can get you pretty far. I was told after a few hours the words for 'what in [language]', 'please', and 'thank you' and for the next few weeks built up for vocabulary greatly by pointing at things. There were even many instances where I learnt words and phrases and had no idea what they were really saying or how to translate it, but I knew what they would do if I said it.
As for a history of communication, what are you interested in and how much do you already know? I could direct you towards some papers on the development of written languages maybe?