News articles like Philip Bowring’s “Aging Nations”, on the negative effects of decreasing birth rates in Shanghai are meant to be factual and informative. For the most part his article is but some phrases are unclear and are in need of conceptual analysis.
Although most of the article is on the factual side conceptual analysis aids in understanding the phrase “In an era in which one frequently hears dire warnings that overpopulation will one day overwhelm the planet, this [low births rates] may not seem like an insurmountable problem. ” (Bowring, 2009)
There are many ambiguous terms in this sentence, each making the true meaning more unclear. Firstly the word “frequently” means a different amount of time to different people. The author probably intended for it to mean that the general public knows that overpopulation is an issue because it is in the media and is a talked about subject. But it could be taken to mean that you are told it a vast majority of the time and it is found everywhere in conversation.
Dire warnings could be taken to be a range of consequences anywhere from the end of the world to the need to halt population growth or the dwindling amount of resources our planet has left due to overpopulation. I believe Bowring intended for it to imply that overpopulation is a serious problem that is in need of a solution soon, no matter what the consequences of taking no action are.
Overwhelming the plant may mean a variety of things as well and is much like the meaning of dire warning. I took it to imply that the planet is running out of space for so many humans, but it could also mean that overpopulation increases the effects of global warming thus overwhelming the planet and its atmosphere.
So with the various meanings of these three words it makes the whole sentence need conceptual analysis as well. I believe that the implication the author intended was that almost everyone knows that overpopulation is a problem in our world today, but they may not have known that under population or decreasing birth rates is an equally prevailing problem. But if the worst case scenarios of each separate word were used the sentence could be taken to mean that all we hear about in the world today is how overpopulation will cause the end of the world so why are low birth rates a problem. I still believe that Bowring intended for the sentence not to be taken as dramatically as my second example but conceptual analysis was still needed to understand all elements involved.
Bowring, P. (2009, August 7). Aging nations. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/opinion/08iht-edbowring.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Overpopulation&st=nyt
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ReplyDeletei really liked how you layed out your blog, you did a great job of isolating each section and defining it. you gave good defintion of what it could mean in relation to what the author meant to say. I also agree that people know that overpopulation is a growing problem; you can see it with the alarming rate at which our population is growing and the lack of resources that we are running into. ill admit that i didnt know that decreasing birth rates is that big of a problem. well done very well written.
ReplyDeleteGood work using "frequently" as an ambiguous term, because it is true that it has different meanings for some people. Overall you did a very good job at finding parts of that sentence that could be misinterpreted and using conceptual analysis to determine possible meanings. Your blog post was very well put together, nice work Liia!
ReplyDeleteYou broke down the phrase quite well and explained each of the ambiguous words with precision and accuarcy. I like how you came up with interesting interpretations. The only suggestion I can tell ya is to maybe seperate some of the points you're trying to make. Overall though, very well done.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this blog topic in general and i thought it was really neat to see the way phrases and or words that people saw to be an "ambiguous term". so neat.
ReplyDeleteI really like the word that you chose to analyze Liia, i would have never sought it to be an ambiguous term, but you totally broke down the sentence and explained the meaning behind the choice. i really enjoyed reading the post.
You came up with really interesting and engaging points and overall just articulated your point really well.
Awesome job!