Rhymes and definitions and confusion
Nov. 2nd, 2010 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyOK... this might not make a lot of sense.
Here's something I don't understand: Why does (or did) it seem that so many people have the wrong definition of rhyme?
OK - it's been quite a while since I've actually observed this pattern, but I have a memory of having used to noticed this a lot, and I'm going to assume that's reliable. Though perhaps the sample was very non-representative; maybe I'm only remembering this from, say, high school, and it's only really younger people who significantly get this wrong.
I mean, yes, it seems people are rarely actually taught the correct definition. (I'm not certain I ever heard a correct definition till I was in high school, and I certainly didn't manage to come up with it myself.) But I don't just mean people will state the definition wrong when asked, or make easily false statements like "rhyme has nothing to do with meter", I mean they will actually classify rhymes things that are not. This really goes against what I expect of people, i.e., that regardless of what they say, they will typically rely on their native pattern-matching abilities when it comes to actually judging category membership.
Now maybe lots of people don't realize the definition they've been given is wrong, because they haven't yet learned that a definition can be wrong. But these are people who not only don't realize the definition is wrong but are actually using it, in what would be, I expect, contradiction to what their native pattern-matching ability should be telling them.
Hypotheses:
1. These people are just "nerds" in the sense Michael Vassar uses the word. Going by my memory, this seems... unlikely. In particular I think I'm rather higher up on that scale than most random people I might meet...
2. They can't really natively recognize the "rhyme" pattern at all; they only know it via definition. I'm going to have a hard time believing that one, too.
3. I'm perceiving a pattern where there is none. Really, Harry? People not being able to determine what is and is not a rhyme? Everyone knows what a rhyme is. My memory is probably faulty. This is looking like my best hypothesis so far.
4. Goddammit I have no goddamn clue.
So... what the hell?
Maybe this would be more helpful had I written this, you know, years ago, when I still actually noticed this, rather than now when I don't think I've actually seen an instance of this in a long time.
-Harry
Here's something I don't understand: Why does (or did) it seem that so many people have the wrong definition of rhyme?
OK - it's been quite a while since I've actually observed this pattern, but I have a memory of having used to noticed this a lot, and I'm going to assume that's reliable. Though perhaps the sample was very non-representative; maybe I'm only remembering this from, say, high school, and it's only really younger people who significantly get this wrong.
I mean, yes, it seems people are rarely actually taught the correct definition. (I'm not certain I ever heard a correct definition till I was in high school, and I certainly didn't manage to come up with it myself.) But I don't just mean people will state the definition wrong when asked, or make easily false statements like "rhyme has nothing to do with meter", I mean they will actually classify rhymes things that are not. This really goes against what I expect of people, i.e., that regardless of what they say, they will typically rely on their native pattern-matching abilities when it comes to actually judging category membership.
Now maybe lots of people don't realize the definition they've been given is wrong, because they haven't yet learned that a definition can be wrong. But these are people who not only don't realize the definition is wrong but are actually using it, in what would be, I expect, contradiction to what their native pattern-matching ability should be telling them.
Hypotheses:
1. These people are just "nerds" in the sense Michael Vassar uses the word. Going by my memory, this seems... unlikely. In particular I think I'm rather higher up on that scale than most random people I might meet...
2. They can't really natively recognize the "rhyme" pattern at all; they only know it via definition. I'm going to have a hard time believing that one, too.
3. I'm perceiving a pattern where there is none. Really, Harry? People not being able to determine what is and is not a rhyme? Everyone knows what a rhyme is. My memory is probably faulty. This is looking like my best hypothesis so far.
4. Goddammit I have no goddamn clue.
So... what the hell?
Maybe this would be more helpful had I written this, you know, years ago, when I still actually noticed this, rather than now when I don't think I've actually seen an instance of this in a long time.
-Harry
