I personally do not feel that psychological experiments sufficiently test the way we comprehend language. This is mainly because every person has a different way of interpreting language, no matter how small the discrepancy. As such, the tests and experiments do not accurately portray the way of thinking of us when we try to comprehend language.

Also, these experiments such as "the Apple on the Towel in the Box" and "The woman hit the man with the umbrella" give only two outcomes: Apple on the towel, or towel in the box; Woman hit the man with the umbrella, or man with the umbrella. This only shows that the crafter of these sentences do not have the ability to speak accurately and therefore leaves the sentence to interpretation.

But psycholinguistics is cool, and surely there are more accurate and defining tests out there. ;D

Singlish should not be disallowed in Singapore, as it has, over the years, become an integral part of Singaporean culture. No, it still has not achieved the status of an "independent language", but it is still something Singaporeans and people all around the world associate with Singapore. It is a defining characteristic as only born-and-bred Singaporeans can actually speak Singlish with the proper enunciation and tonality. Case in question, that video about teaching the Caucasian how to speak Singlish. Granted, anyone can say the words, but it takes a Singaporean to speak the "language".

However, there must be a clear divide between English, and Singlish. A lack of this divide would lower the standard of English in Singapore, as when one uses Singlish in an improper situation, such as in essays or in interviews, it just does not say a lot about the Singaporean in general. Also, Singlish could be twinned with the attitude of laziness and apathy. Thus, we as Singaporeans must be able to discipline ourselves and decide prudently when and when not to use Singlish.

English as it is broken is a stellar example on how the effect of Singlish causes English standards to drop. In most examples on fail English in Singapore, there is the influence of Singlish. Once again the importance of separating E from S is shown.

Thank you for listening to my ranting :D

Hello. First post for Psycholinguistics DMP module right here, right now. Epic, ain't it?

Losing language, disregardless of the scale, would leave us with an emotional base without the adequate pathways for expression. For example, if the word "foresee" was to be removed, we might be able to replace it with the phrase "predict something will happen in the future". However, with the loss of the word "foresee" comes the loss of the word "foresight" and all other branch words. Also gone is the ability to bring across the meaning of the word "foresee" with the same exact meaning.

If we lose the ability to speak a language, this results in the inability to express our thoughts, leading to a reduction in the usage of these unspeakable thought, leading to a restriction and clamping down on thoughts. Language and writing are the clear defining factors that separate the human race from mere animals. If we were to lose the ability to read, to write, and to communicate, we would be different from animals no more. Language is the contributing factor for quick advancement across civilisation, between humans, even within a small community. An orangutan cannot understand the computer because it does not understand the language created by humans for computers. Similarly, humans collaborate and agree to doing things through the implementation of language, leading to advancement of society.

With a lack of language, we cannot get across our ideas and our thoughts easily. This limits advancement and collaboration, and improvement of society would slow down to a standstill before starting to regress. This limits thought process, because as society regresses, our need to think and to use our brain to solve problems PAST the base instincts that are needed for survival is diminished and without practice, thought processes become rusty.\

Thus, seeing the effect of Newspeak being to cut away words that have separate meanings, that have differing connotations, that are open to interpretation, the need to think about language diminshes and causes society as a whole to slow down. Oldspeak, with all its subtleties, nuances, pronunciations, enunciations and pitches, show a range of human emotions, which is of course, very important to humanity.

Newspeak will so. Not. Work. Please. Especially if the removed word is something like "homosexuality". The idea of homosexuality is an inclination, a kind of instinct that in in-bred in homosexuals. As such, even with the removal of this word, the acts and occurences of homosexuals would still continue being as such.

:D