Blog 5: Le Singe Est Sur La Branche

So for this blog I chose the subject from Chapter 4, Lexical Semantics.

With Lexical Semantics, the book says, "All the speakers of a language share a basic vocabulary...Each of us knows the meanings of thousands of words. This knowledge permit us to use words to express our thoughts and to understand the thoughts of others."

In regards to the video I found, this quote says to me that if given an opportunity, we can understand what someone is saying in another language if we allow ourselves to be open to it. I think that even if we do not know a language, the way the sentences are set up as well as how it is spoken and which words are emphasized, we can comprehend the language as if we knew it.

Eddie Izzard is a popular comedian and actor. And in this clip from a show he did here in America, he sets up his ending joke so that the audience can understand it completely in French. Now, I have seen this twice already and I have to say the first time I was too distracted and I became absolutely lost and confused. The second time I focused on his body language and allowed my mind to open to what he was saying and PAYED ATTENTION. It was hilarious. You can understand what he is saying although it is almost entirely in French.

I chose the longer video of this so that the set up to the joke is better and allow you guys to get in the zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hJQsvoY6VU

Enjoy!

P.S. the title in English means "The monkey is on the branch." It's in the video, it will make sense if you watch it. Promise.