Monday, March 7, 2011

Too Many Words#5

I chose English as my major not because I am in anyway good at it but because I see it as a very creative language. I can mix it up with my Spanish quiet well. It makes sense. So going back to structuralism I would like to study the word "burrito." Yes I know it sounds silly and it is. So according to Saussure, language is not "a naming process only" but a "concept and a sound-image."OK this is clear because the concept "burrito" means very different to someone that speaks Spanish only and one that Speak English also. I remember one day I was reading to my boyfriend in Spanish about a "burrito" that cross the road to a river bank. He gave me a puzzle look. In his mind a "burrito" is a carne asada filled wrapped tortilla not a donkey like the one in the story. So even though he understood my Spanish he knows "burrito" as food not as an animal. Lets take this a little farther and discuss the pronunciation of the word. The concept "burrito" no longer a small donkey, does not have the same Spanish pronunciation anymore. Because it is food and is readily available to hungry college students, its Spanish beginnings evolve to "booriro" a mixture of English and Spanish.  Now jumping to fryer, "burrito" now represents food. If we hear someone say it we think of food and in turn to a place like where we can get one like Taco Bell. Now I'm hungry.