User:BrizzyG/sandbox

Wikipedia Assignment #2: "Etymology"

'''-Check the "Talk" page of the article you've selected. What is the level of importance (or quality) assigned to the topic? What is the class-level of the article, and what reason(s) did you find for that “grade?”'''

For this assignment I chose the topic of "Etymology". The level of importance assigned to this Wiki page in the Society section is 'Level-4; Vital Article' for its importance and 'B-class' quality wise. In The Wikiprojects: Linguistics project's section, the page is is considered to be 'Top-Importance' but a 'C-class' for its quality. This page is a sufficient introduction for the Society aspect because it does discuss word origins and how they relate to society, but the reason its considered to be more lacking in the Linguistics perspective is because it is missing more detailed information. This page is considered to be crucial to the field of Linguistics as a whole, which reflects its rating as 'Top-Importance', but because it only provides introductory information, readers will have to do some outside research to learn more. Etymology is a subject that most of the general public knows about, as it is written in many different dictionaries and is mentioned in many language classes.

'''-Is there a focus for the comments, or are there several? What are the issues that the comments address.'''

There are several comments on the "Talk" page, most of which are suggestions to edit the page to have more correct information provided. There are a couple of comments, though, that discuss possibilities of different etymologies for specific examples that are provided.

'''-Select two of the issues, and summarize the discussions. How does the discussion relate to what you have learned, or feel you know about the issue? Is there resolution? How does the language on the actual page relate to the talk about it?'''

One of the issues on the Talk page is a disagreement of a possible different etymology of the English word "sofa". The origin, according to the Wiki article on Etymology, comes from the Arabic word soffa, meaning a low platform, but someone who commented on the Talk page seems to think that the word comes from the Chinese word shu fu, meaning 'comfortable'. Another user said that it's more likely that the English word 'sofa' comes from the Old Norse word meaning 'to sleep' which actually looks the same as the English 'sofa'. It's interesting to me to see that there is so much disagreement just about the origin for this one word, but it really shows that people rarely agree on things in the field of Linguistics (and other fields, as well), and especially in the subject of History. It's very difficult to prove word origins, which is why there is so much disagreement.

Another issue on the 'Talk' page is another disagreement of the actual meaning for the Greek word "etymon", which seems to be the root for the word "etymology". The Wiki page for Etymon redirects users to the Etymology page, but does not discuss its meaning, which is a valid reason that so many users were discussing the possible meaning of Etymon. Many users agree that the Greek word "etymon" means 'true sense', but state that etymology itself does not exist to find the true meanings of words; but that etymology finds the history and origins of words. It makes sense to me that people do not agree on the actual origin of the word 'etymon', because it may mislead you to think that etymology is a study that is interested in finding real meanings of words. It is very unlikely that people will agree on every etymology, because there is a lot of historical analysis that needs to be done in order to find the actual oldest origin of words. Plus, spoken language is significantly older than written language, but we find the word origins from written history and find the earliest 'occurrences' of the words–when in fact, they are just the oldest evidence of a written occurrence of a particular word. We cannot prove the earliest spoken occurrences of words.

'''-How do the article and discussion relate to our treatment of the topic—in our reading and in our discussion? Did we address it at all? If so, did we do so in ways consistent with the understanding in the article or the talk page? You may find agreement with some of the discussants and disagreement with others.'''

The article and discussion reflect the difficulties in concept agreements, especially in the field of Linguistics and language discussion. Many Linguists also disagree on word origins, which shows how completely normal and okay it is to not agree with someone's claim. The field of Linguistics is not a perfect field– it is relatively new as a science, and theories about language are constantly being proved wrong, improved, accepted, and denied, and then made new again just like a cycle. Linguistics can help us learn to not always accept whatever we learn as being fact or truth, but teaches us to think critically, challenge theories, and find examples to prove hypotheses wrong.

'''-What is your sense of the discussion? In other words, what do you conclude is most convincing or explanatory? Why? (i.e., what reasoning led you to draw the conclusion you have drawn?)'''

I do not know enough about etymology itself to say whether or not I agree with the statements that some users wrote, but I do think that it will always be difficult to trace word origins or any given language with not enough written history to trace back to very early forms of language. I do agree, though, that many statements on the Wiki "Etymology" page need citations, so when reading the article, it's better to take everything with a grain of salt, use the information as an introductory tool, and if interested, take your research beyond just Wikipedia.