Friday, September 14, 2012
Abstract Language
"Down, set, hike!" To many people these three words are associated with American Football. Three words with three different meanings. What do they mean? Depending on how these words are used they will mean different things to different individuals. Often "down" is referring to direction, being the opposite of up. In the American Football context it refers to the Quarterback telling all of the offensive players to get ready to be "set." Once the Quarterback yells "set," all of the offensive players need to get ready for the ball to be "hiked" and no one is allowed to move once the "set" call has been made. Shortly after everyone is set the Quarterback will "hike" the ball. The "hike" call commands the football into the Quarterback's hands and gives an order to be completed by all the offensive players on the field. It is not a call for everyone to start walking long distance. These words are abstract in meaning and clarification is needed in order to succeed in playing American Football. These words are not the things themselves, but jargon that is represented differently depending on the context in which they are used. With the knowledge about abstract language it is possible to prevent communication errors.
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Your post was very interesting to read. I really enjoyed how you used something to explain your point and get across what you thought was interesting in the chapter. This is something that I never thought of doing myself, but really enjoyed reading it. The way that you explained how these words were used differently in the context of football really made your point easy to understand. Knowing certain terms and how certain words are used in different contexts can really help people in their day-to-day activities. This is one of the most interesting and entertaining posts that I have read and I hope that there will be others like this in the future.
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