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The Hawaiian language has a concept called Kaona, which is essentially embedding deeper meanings in contextual word choices. It can go way beyond the literal m

by alexose 9mo ago

The Hawaiian language has a concept called Kaona, which is essentially embedding deeper meanings in contextual word choices. It can go way beyond the literal meaning of the words, and tie into bigger concepts of culture, lineage, and places. It's super cool hearing about it from native speakers. We don't really do it intentionally in English, at least to the same degree. But there's still a lot of information coded in our word and grammar choices.

baconbrand 9mo ago
In English the word is “connotation.”
- pksebben 9mo ago
  you know, I feel like we don't actually do that so much these days. It's simply too likely that the receiving party is going to take you at face value or make up their own deeper meaning. Take irony / sarcasm / satire. They're pretty dead compared to what they used to be. I can recall a time when just about everything had subtext, but now you kind of have to play it straight. You can't respond to a racist with sarcasm because anyone listening will just think you agree with them. It's Poe's law across the board. World news brought to you by Not The Onion(tm).
  - dragonwriter 9mo ago
    > You can't respond to a racist with sarcasm because anyone listening will just think you agree with them. You absolutely can, if you are actually dealing with people listening, because sarcasm is signalled with (among other things) tone (the other things include the listeners contextual knowledge of the speaker.) You can't do it online, in text, where the audience is mostly strangers who would have to actively dig into your history to get any contextual sense of you as a speaker, because text doesn't carry tone, and the other cues are missing, too. And by “you can’t”, I mean “you absolutely can, but you have to be aware of the limitations of the medium and take care to use the available tools to substitute for the missing signalling channels”.
    - pksebben 9mo ago
      It's a matter of degree. You're right, of course, but there was a time not so long ago when such things were ubiquitous - even on the internet. Once upon a time, even the darkest corners like 4chan were actually kind of tongue-in-cheek. Then it slowly dawned on everyone that there were a bunch of people there who weren't kidding, and things kind of went to pot. In a reversal of the aphorism; those were more complex times. I miss them.
      - tourmalinetaco 9mo ago
        It’s not even really a problem of the Internet necessarily; it’s rather a symptom of the growing political divide in Western society. Things are “simple” now because we’ve reached the point where nuanced discussion is pointless. In Europe you can be jailed for going against the Accepted Opinions™, and we’re seeing a rise in politically motivated attacks. There is no logical solution to emotionally backed rhetoric like we’ve seen with the Turtle Island terrorists; you can’t debate ethics with someone who wants you dead.
        komali2 9mo ago
        Who are the Turtle Island terrorists? I only know of four people accused of attempting to build a bomb, but not actually having done so. Surely you aren't taking a government at its word on a politically charged case? Need we trudge out the Chicago 7 again?
        tourmalinetaco 9mo ago
        By their own words they were going to commit terrorism. That, logically, makes them terrorists. They were found, on film, to be making and experimenting with illegal explosives, and they were found to own even more materials. If you have trustworthy evidence that this is all fabrication—evidence that doesn’t exist in your mind—then I’d be more than happy to see it. And if you’re saying all of this because you agree with them and their actions, at least have the courage to state you support terrorism directly.
      - 9mo ago
  - amenhotep 9mo ago
    You're right, there's absolutely no sarcasm ever seen on the internet or anywhere else. These days if you say something sarcastic they throw you in jail!
    - kennyloginz 9mo ago
      These days
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]

by alexose 9mo ago

baconbrand 9mo ago

In English the word is “connotation.”

pksebben 9mo ago
you know, I feel like we don't actually do that so much these days. It's simply too likely that the receiving party is going to take you at face value or make up their own deeper meaning. Take irony / sarcasm / satire. They're pretty dead compared to what they used to be. I can recall a time when just about everything had subtext, but now you kind of have to play it straight. You can't respond to a racist with sarcasm because anyone listening will just think you agree with them. It's Poe's law across the board. World news brought to you by Not The Onion(tm).
- dragonwriter 9mo ago
  > You can't respond to a racist with sarcasm because anyone listening will just think you agree with them. You absolutely can, if you are actually dealing with people listening, because sarcasm is signalled with (among other things) tone (the other things include the listeners contextual knowledge of the speaker.) You can't do it online, in text, where the audience is mostly strangers who would have to actively dig into your history to get any contextual sense of you as a speaker, because text doesn't carry tone, and the other cues are missing, too. And by “you can’t”, I mean “you absolutely can, but you have to be aware of the limitations of the medium and take care to use the available tools to substitute for the missing signalling channels”.
  - pksebben 9mo ago
    It's a matter of degree. You're right, of course, but there was a time not so long ago when such things were ubiquitous - even on the internet. Once upon a time, even the darkest corners like 4chan were actually kind of tongue-in-cheek. Then it slowly dawned on everyone that there were a bunch of people there who weren't kidding, and things kind of went to pot. In a reversal of the aphorism; those were more complex times. I miss them.
    - tourmalinetaco 9mo ago
      It’s not even really a problem of the Internet necessarily; it’s rather a symptom of the growing political divide in Western society. Things are “simple” now because we’ve reached the point where nuanced discussion is pointless. In Europe you can be jailed for going against the Accepted Opinions™, and we’re seeing a rise in politically motivated attacks. There is no logical solution to emotionally backed rhetoric like we’ve seen with the Turtle Island terrorists; you can’t debate ethics with someone who wants you dead.
      - komali2 9mo ago
        Who are the Turtle Island terrorists? I only know of four people accused of attempting to build a bomb, but not actually having done so. Surely you aren't taking a government at its word on a politically charged case? Need we trudge out the Chicago 7 again?
        tourmalinetaco 9mo ago
        By their own words they were going to commit terrorism. That, logically, makes them terrorists. They were found, on film, to be making and experimenting with illegal explosives, and they were found to own even more materials. If you have trustworthy evidence that this is all fabrication—evidence that doesn’t exist in your mind—then I’d be more than happy to see it. And if you’re saying all of this because you agree with them and their actions, at least have the courage to state you support terrorism directly.
    - 9mo ago
- amenhotep 9mo ago
  You're right, there's absolutely no sarcasm ever seen on the internet or anywhere else. These days if you say something sarcastic they throw you in jail!
  - kennyloginz 9mo ago
    These days

deleted 9mo ago

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