Week 4 Discussion — Do Our Words Shape What We Notice? — Traditional alternative (no AI)

Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.

Hook

Think of a word you use at work, on a team, or at home that a newcomer would have to be taught. Words like that can bring people together, shut people out, and maybe even train what you notice. This week you met design features such as arbitrariness, dialect and register, code-switching, and the strong and weak forms of linguistic relativity.

Your discussion question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.

Option A: Pick one word or phrase from a group you know well (a job, a sport, a hobby, a family) that names something outsiders tend to overlook. Some people argue that having a word like that changes how you see the world; others argue that it only makes you quicker to name what anyone could see. Which side do you find stronger? Use the strong and weak forms of linguistic relativity and arbitrariness, and say what would change your mind.

Option B: At the running fieldwork site, an illustrative weekly market, a vendor greets a regular with "The usual?" and bags the order before the shopper asks, but gives a first-time buyer a full explanation of the produce, what "seconds" means, and the price. Some argue that the vendors' shorthand and insider words are a welcome sign of belonging; others argue that they quietly leave newcomers out. Where do you land? Use register, emic terms, and arbitrariness, and say what each side gets right.

There is no single right answer here. A shared word can build a community and also mark its edge, and the evidence on language and thought supports a real effect without supporting the claim that words set the limits of thought. Pick the option you actually care about, and tell us your reasoning.

Expectations

Activity format: one initial post followed by two substantive peer replies. Plan on about 45 minutes across the two deadlines; your instructor sets both due dates in Canvas.

Working on your own: this version of the discussion is written entirely from your own reasoning, in your own words.

Your initial post — by the first due date (early in the module week):

• Say which option you chose.
• For Option A, name your word or phrase, give its gloss for a newcomer, and say whether you think it changes how you see or only how fast you name what you see; for Option B, say whether you find the vendors' shorthand more welcoming or more excluding, and name the register shift and the emic terms involved.
• Use at least two of this week's terms (arbitrariness, register, dialect, code-switching, the strong form and the weak form of linguistic relativity) correctly.
• Give your judgment, with a reason.
• Length: roughly 150–250 words if written. You may instead record your post as audio or video (about two minutes) and attach a transcript; both forms are scored by the same rubric.

Your replies — by the second due date (the end of the module week):

• Reply substantively to at least two classmates.
• A substantive reply does more than agree: point out where a classmate blurred the strong form with the weak form, offer the strongest case for the other side, or suggest the gloss a newcomer would need for the classmate's word. "Nice point!" on its own does not count.

What a strong post looks like:

I chose Option A. On the volunteer crew at a community garden, people say a bed has "bolted" when its lettuce shoots up and turns bitter. A newcomer needs the gloss, because nothing in the sound means bitter lettuce, which is arbitrariness. I lean toward the weak form: having the word makes me spot those beds faster, but a visitor without it can still see that the plants are tall. I would test my view by asking a new volunteer to sort the beds before and after learning the word.

Notice how it names the group by its kind, glosses the insider word, keeps the strong form and the weak form apart, and says what it would still check. That is the bar.

Participation rubric

This discussion is worth 10 points. The three criteria below look at your initial post and your peer replies.

Post early if you can — the best threads happen when people have time to reply before the second due date.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com