Language Is Abstract Abstraction is a process of selecting some details and leaving out other details. Any use of language involves some abstraction.And indeed,abstraction is one of the most useful features of language.It allows us to think in categories,and this gives us the ability to generalize. In classifying a number of fruits into categories-apple,pear,orange,and peach,for instance-we are selecting some details,such as theiro,shape,and texture,and ignoring others,such as their weight.We could classify them another way,into categories such as six-ounce fruits,seven-ounce fruits,eight-ounce fruits,and so forth;in this case,we would be selecting a different detail,their weight,and ignoring the details we paid attention to at first. Much human knowledge is intimately bound up in the process of categoriz- ing or classifying We lear that certain red,ound objects are good to eat,and giving those objects a name makes it easier to remember that knowledge and pass it on to others
Verbal Level 8 Transportation 7 Land transportation 6 Motor vehicle 5 Car 4 Honda 3 Severin's Honda Accord Nonverbal Levels 2 The maroon Honda Accord that we can see and touch The car as atomic process Figure5.Example of an abstraction ladder
Box 5.3 They Were Both Labeled Nazis Several generations of Americans have viewed the German boxer Max Schmeling as vehe- mently pro-Hitler and a willing model for the Third Reich.Schmeling beat Joe Louis in 1936,and Hitler extolled Schmeling as a model of the new Aryan Superman. The truth about Schmeling is quite different.He refused to join the Nazi party or to be used to support Nazi propaganda.He refused,over Joseph Goebbels'(the Nazi propaganda minister)personal protest,to fire his American Jewish manager or to stop associating with German Jews.After the war,Schmeling became quite wealthy and he quietly and regularly gave Joe Louis (then living in near poverty)gifts of money and,after Louis's death,gave Louis's widow $5 thousand.Schmeling never told anyone,nor even mentioned it in his own memoirs. He also never told anyone of the two teenage sons of a Jewish friend(David Lewin)that he hid in his Berlin hotel apartment,at great personal risk,and later escorted to safety.It was only when Henri Lewin,who became a successful hotel owner in California and Nevada,told the story in 1989 that the world learned of Schmeling's courage.When asked why he had not told anyone,Schmeling said quietly,"It was my duty as a man"(Weisbord and Hedderich,1993). Iris Chang(1997),in her book The Rape of Nanking,tells how John Rabe,whom she calls "the Oskar Schindler of China,"saved the lives of thousands of Chinese during the six-week terror in Nanking(now Nanjing)in 1937 when Japanese troops raped,tortured,and murdered more than 300,000 innocent,unarmed civilians.Rabe,the leader of the Nazi party in Nanking, had worked in China for more than 30 years for the German company Siemens China,a sup- plier and maintainer of electrical equipment.His children and grandchildren had been born in China,and he loved China and the Chinese people.He had refused repeated opportunities to leave Nanjing,choosing to remain behind to save his Chinese workers and many others (Pp.I09-I20)
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Box 5.4 Moslem Terrorists oraisticovergeneralization was the topic of an p-ed artice by Mohamed Kamal (7),the oranian ambassadorto the Unite States.He pointed ot that American media tilize a sim- plisticMoslem-terorist-Arabqtion when there are amost200million Arabs and nearly a billion Moslems in the world.They are identified with the"terristslabel when the media cover terrorist actions and describe them as"Moslemr"Arab." Kamal observes that the media never refer to the Baader-Meinhof Gang asChristin ter- riss,the Japanese Red Army faction as"Shinto terorists"He adds: The obliteration of camps and towns in Lebanon is not called "Jewish terrorism..The press would not think of writing"black thief"or"Christian murderer.Why then does a qualifying racial r reigious adjective become accept- able when itis“Arab"or“Moslem"?(p.l7 11A1·