Sold A Story - How adult politics created an American illiteracy epidemic

[Thought Art]

@Elliott Also, I am not a victim. I’m calling you a dick. 

[Elliott]

2 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

@Elliott Also, I am not a victim. I’m calling you a dick. 

Which one of these was that?

 

Adynamia

Anecdotage

Impignorate

Syzygy

Callipygian

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Kakorrhaphiophobia

Accismus

Agelast

Bibble

Cabotage

Collywobbles

Erinaceous

Absquatulate

Agastopia

Convivial

 

🍻 

[Thought Art]

@Elliott Exactly. 
 

Things I’ve said are true. With allowance for nuance. 
 

You can straw man me if you want. But that limits your understanding of what I’ve said. 
 

You have helped me explore this area and I’m sure my mind will continue to learn more. 

Edited 8 hours ago by Thought Art

[Thought Art]

Kakorrhaphiophobia
 

I don’t know what this mean, but I assume it’s a kind of phobia. Why? Because I learned to break words up when I can to sound out root words. 
 

In that way, phonetics helps you begin to comprehend words meanings. 
 

I’ve never claimed 100% understanding of a word! Unless you know it already. 
 

phobia - some kind of fear

gian - is a suffix for a person from somewhere 

topia - place or state 

 Ulate - to cause…

etc

You can use the endings of words and the sounds, and typical usage of the endings to gain insight into the word. As part of the phonetics I learn the meaning of these endings too.

Edited 8 hours ago by Thought Art

[Elliott]

6 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

Kakorrhaphiophobia
 

I don’t know what this mean, but I assume it’s a kind of phobia. Why? Because I learned to break words up when I can to sound out root words. 
 

In that way, phonetics helps you begin to comprehend words meanings. 
 

I’ve never claimed 100% understanding of a word! Unless you know it already. 
 

phobia - some kind of fear

gian - is a suffix for a person from somewhere 

topia - place or state 

 Ulate - to cause…

etc

 

That's not an example of phonetics, it's memory. You remember phobia, gian, topiary, ulate.

[Thought Art]

@Elliott It’s morphology and etymology which I may have been taught along with phonetics. 
 

Phonetics is memory too so moot point. It all mixes together. 
 

But, yeah I would say phonetics alone nope couldn’t help you understand them… but you could sound them out. Sounding them out and aspects of the skill set of breaking up word with morphology helps… I’m enjoying making finer distinctions here. You would need the above to gain more insight along with definitions or context in the chapter or paragraph you are reading. 
 

The thing we gotta do here is really state what phonetics helps someone do. It’s an aspect that aids and helps other aspects of reading. I’ll construct a list with ChatGPT through some powerful prompts!

Edited 8 hours ago by Thought Art

[Nemra]

30 minutes ago, Elliott said:

To read, or speak? Why would being around natives 24/7 make phonetics less useful for reading?

Phonetics is based on speech.

Can you speak Russian without hearing how Russians speak?

Firstly, you have to expose yourself to Russian speech.

I think you don't need phonetics if you aren't going to speak or listen to people speaking. However, I hear my voice or talk to myself when I think, so I don't want to think in English in my head based on other speech.

Edited 8 hours ago by Nemra

[Thought Art]

ChatGPT does a great job expanding the big picture of literacy which I am vaguely aware of but excited to review 

 

I. Sound & Form (Pre-Meaning Layers)

1. Phonetics

How sounds are produced and perceived

→ sharpens pronunciation, listening, accent awareness

2. Phonology

How sounds pattern within a language

→ stress, rhythm, syllable structure, sound rules

3. Prosody

Intonation, emphasis, cadence, pacing

→ meaning beyond words (emotion, intent, authority)

4. Orthography

Spelling systems and conventions

→ why words look the way they do

 

II. Word Construction & Meaning

5. Morphology

Roots, prefixes, suffixes

→ decoding unfamiliar word

6. Etymology

Historical origin and lineage

→ reveals core meaning beneath modern usage

7. Lexical Semantics

Precise meanings of words and word families

→ understanding fine distinctions (e.g., anxiety vs dread)

8. Polysemy Awareness

One word, multiple meanings

→ avoiding shallow or incorrect interpretation

9. Collocation

Words that naturally go together

→ native-level fluency and elegance

 

III. Meaning in Context

10. Semantics (Contextual Meaning)

How meaning shifts with situation

→ “charge,” “energy,” “power” mean different things in different fields

11. Pragmatics

What is meant rather than said

→ sarcasm, implication, social meaning

12. Register Awareness

Formal vs informal vs technical vs poetic

→ choosing the right language for the moment

13. Discourse Analysis

How meaning unfolds across sentences and texts

→ arguments, narratives, framing

 

IV. Time, Culture & Power

14. Semantic Drift

How meanings evolve

→ prevents anachronistic misunderstanding

15. Diachronic Literacy

Reading texts in their historical mindset

→ grasping what words meant then

16. Sociolinguistics

How class, culture, power, and identity shape language

→ who gets to define meaning

17. Ideological Framing

How language encodes values and worldviews

→ spotting manipulation, propaganda, bias

V. Rhetoric & Persuasion

18. Rhetorical Devices

Metaphor, analogy, irony, repetition, framing

→ emotional and persuasive power

19. Argument Literacy

Claims, evidence, assumptions, fallacies

→ resisting bullshit

20. Narrative Literacy

Story structure, archetypes, mythic patterns

→ deep persuasion and meaning-making

21. Tone & Voice Awareness

Authorial stance and intention

→ detecting confidence, humility, aggression, seduction

VI. Symbolic & Abstract Layers

22. Metaphorical Literacy

Understanding how abstract thought relies on metaphor

→ “time is money,” “energy is flow”

23. Symbolic Literacy

Religious, mythic, psychological symbols

→ reading beneath the literal

24. Mythopoetic Literacy

How stories encode wisdom across cultures

→ Jung, Campbell, archetypes

 

VII. Precision & Craft

25. Stylistics

Sentence architecture, rhythm, clarity

→ elegance and force in writing

26. Lexical Precision

Choosing the exact word

→ power without excess

27. Conciseness

Expressing maximum meaning with minimal language

→ mastery, not simplicity

VIII. Meta-Literacy (Rare but Powerful)

28. Metalinguistic Awareness

Thinking about language while using it

→ conscious mastery

29. Conceptual Literacy

Seeing how words map to mental models

→ dissolving confusion at the root

30. Epistemic Literacy

How language shapes what we think we know

→ humility, clarity, wisdom

31. Hermeneutics

Interpretation theory

→ knowing how meaning is extracted

 

IX. Applied Mastery

32. Translation Literacy

Moving meaning between languages or domains

→ very high intelligence signal

 

33. Coinage & Naming

Creating words that feel inevitable

→ branding, philosophy, art

34. Silence Literacy

Knowing when not to speak

→ rhetorical and social mastery

A Simple Summary Model

High-level literacy =

- Sound

→ Structure

→ Meaning

→ Context

→ Power

→ Wisdom

 

What you’re really building toward is the ability to see through words rather than be hypnotized by them — and also to use them cleanly, precisely, and ethically.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Thought Art

[Thought Art]

@Thought Art So, TLDR… phonetics as a missing piece for me personally that unlocked my ability to read and write. It is kind of like understanding the meaningless building blocks of a language I already could speak helping me to bridge the gap to reading, spelling etc.

….. hmm Still things are missing from our list of aspects of literacy like grammar, punctuation and syntax…

Edited 7 hours ago by Thought Art

[Thought Art]

I share this to further expand and illuminate the depth and connection of these aspects of literacy.. chatgpt

 

Grammar & Syntax

Grammar – rules for structuring sentences, including:

Parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.)

Agreement (subject–verb, pronoun–antecedent)

Tense, aspect, mood

Voice (active vs passive)

Why it matters:

Understanding grammar lets you parse complex sentences.

It reveals relationships between words and ideas.

It’s crucial for decoding meaning in context.

Syntax – the arrangement of words and phrases:

Sentence types: simple, compound, complex

Modifiers and their placement

Parallel structure

Clause relationships (cause, contrast, condition)

Why it matters:

Syntax gives the logical architecture of language.

Helps with inferring relationships and emphasis.

Enables reading for nuance, not just literal meaning.

 

Punctuation & Orthography

Punctuation – marks that clarify meaning and rhythm:

Commas, periods, colons, semicolons, dashes, quotation marks, parentheses

Signals tone, pauses, emphasis, lists, contrasts, and quotations

Why it matters:

Guides parsing of sentences

Indicates logical connections and hierarchy of ideas

Helps detect rhetorical nuance (questions, exclamations, irony)

Capitalization & Orthography – visual cues for meaning:

Proper nouns, titles, acronyms

Sentence boundaries

Hyphenation (compound words, modifiers)

 

How These Layers Interact

Phonetics & phonology → decoding sounds

Morphology & etymology → decoding word meaning

Grammar & syntax → decoding sentence structure

Punctuation & orthography → decoding hierarchy and emphasis

Contextual inference → decoding meaning dynamically in real text

Grammar and punctuation act as the scaffolding for higher-level meaning. Without them, morphology and context clues can only go so far.

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Thought Art

[Thought Art]

The mistake I made early on in this thread is mixing phonetics with phonology and morphology, I think. 

The morphology of those words can help distinguish it's meaning, not the phonetics alone. 

Also, I didn't explicitly remember some of those endings alone other than phobia. I feel it is important for me to be honest that for for most of them I had an implicit understanding I used chatgpt to check my understanding because I wasn't sure.

I suspected what you were saying was correct... But, I hadn't fully grasped the distinction between phonetics and morphology. In reality, though I was correct that I knew there was other aspects of understanding happening with phonetics I hadn't yet made it explicit to myself.
 

@Elliott You made lots of good points. Thank you! I apologize for calling you a dick. It seemed like that at the time. But, your point was true and valid.

I will continue to strive to admit when I am wrong, dishonest or disingenuous as it becomes aware to me.

Edited 6 hours ago by Thought Art

[Basman]

8 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

Reading and studying philosophy or even simply watching good videos, not just browsing Wikipedia, in addition to being a pleasure, will provide you with elements of language, concepts, even epistemology with a "dialectical" approach and/or scientific evidence in favor of it (although we, as non-dualists, know that positivism is an illusion and autistic bullshit 😏).

At some point you didn't learn how to make Skyrim mods by reading the C++ Wikipedia page it doesn’t makes sense.

You will definitely learn something from a philosophy education, but it won't be a "lean" education. Most of it is essentially philosophical history. Your not going to remember most of nuances and ideas of the various concepts and philosophers and it mostly doesn't really matter unless it is your autism hole. What Kant thought about duty is the academic philosophy equivalent of the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. You don't really practice philosophizing that much.

The real value of a philosophy education is the rigor, rationality and language they instill in you. You gain a heightened sense of objectivity, making you better at detecting nuances and turning points in logic. It's useful for anything communicative and logical, like programming, law work, arguments and debates, etc. The issue is that it is not really worth 3-5 years of school + debt when the education itself has so much fat and is so contrived. The biggest regret of graduates is not studying something more profitable. I would only recommend philosophy as a minor subject if there's no alternatives more relevant to your goals.

[Elliott]

2 hours ago, Thought Art said:

@Elliott You made lots of good points. Thank you! I apologize for calling you a dick. It seemed like that at the time. But, your point was true and valid.

 

🍻 

If you run across anything interesting I'm interested in it. What we need is a long term study following kids from preschool to a graduate degree.

[Schizophonia]

2 hours ago, Basman said:

You will definitely learn something from a philosophy education, but it won't be a "lean" education. Most of it is essentially philosophical history. Your not going to remember most of nuances and ideas of the various concepts and philosophers and it mostly doesn't really matter unless it is your autism hole. What Kant thought about duty is the academic philosophy equivalent of the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. You don't really practice philosophizing that much.

The real value of a philosophy education is the rigor, rationality and language they instill in you. You gain a heightened sense of objectivity, making you better at detecting nuances and turning points in logic. It's useful for anything communicative and logical, like programming, law work, arguments and debates, etc. The issue is that it is not really worth 3-5 years of school + debt when the education itself has so much fat and is so contrived. The biggest regret of graduates is not studying something more profitable. I would only recommend philosophy as a minor subject if there's no alternatives more relevant to your goals.

Generally you study philosophy for pure pleasure, or to work as a philosophy professor or in more specific professions like medical ethics.