Bessie Brooks Guide to English Grammar

Annotation

There is elements of language that allow us to better understand the world. Abstractions in language help us classify ideas into groups so that we may generalize or specify parts within a label. For instance a car is made up of many parts, such as the engine, the wheels, the body,etc. We call it a car instead of of "an engine driving the wheels with a body attached to carry passengers", to make it easier for us not only to transfer the though within our mind, but also to others. Also, by calling it a car, we have differentiated the object from a train or a bike, both being other modes of transportation. Abstractions are part of our mental girds that help us by chopping reality into fragments so that we may organize it and put it into our grasp of understanding. Something such as the temperature cannot be measured because it is infinitely variable. It is just our enviroment reduced to numbers so that we can conceive it in our minds. Again, our world is divided into pieces so the human mind can understand it bit buy bit. From seeing a car to measuring the temperature, language offers an explanation to our experience and it is a powerful tool to help us think.