Use and Repair ... not Make

As I sat in the motor-cycle shop (see my last post) getting all those little needed repairs and interventions completed that I had so long neglected, I wrote some notes to myself on the question whether analytic use might be made of the disctinction between, well, 'use' and 'make' ('create, manufacture') in the context of locally produced language for imported technology.

And as I watched with growing appreciation, the easy relationship between the owner of the repair shop and his son (part coaching, part teaching, part directing: 'get this' or 'get that'), I mused on what kind of language of use, repair and description might arise in cases where the physical technology (being used, described and repaired) is so much more easily imported than is the technical language that supports it (or where there is a significant enough lag for local linguistic choices to take root).

"So anyway."

(I wrote. Who knows why?)

"I had this insight, 'revelation' :), that one place to look for (watch?) how language changes would be by tracking how the language of everyday life accomodates new technology: the technology that Cambodians themselves have not invented, but which entered their lives in an unmissable way.

"Though they did not invent telephones, cars, computers, or motorbikes, they use them, and they repair them. Repair is not a one person activity. It normally requires (at least for cars and motorbikes) some level of co-ordination of effort. Co-ordination of effort requires the cooperation facilitation function of language.

"Think of Wittgenstein's description of bricklayers building a house: 'brick', which use might produce the same outcome as 'bring me a brick.' (You don't need to know what a brick is, what it is made of, how to make one, in order to respond properly to the command: 'brick'. But to build a house collaboratively, you need something like the command "brick" and the behaviors correlated to its use.)

"But communication is not strictly required in all cases for repair. I have seen phone repairmen focused on a single handphone, working alone. However, even working alone, he will need a clearly developed language of object and action, if, for example: a problem arises requiring consultation; tools are shared between independent repairmen ("give me that solder iron for a minute"). And even when the repairman is completely independent (fully competent to recognize and to solve the problems that he meets, fully tooled out and self-sufficient), he (never seen a female repairperson here :) will need to be trained.

"The telephone will have been broken down in pieces for him by his trainer and named, their functions may not need to be understood as fully as the maker might understand them, but the repairmen should understand their typical modes of failure (and thus the signals of proper functioning), and what to do about them, and to our point here, how to talk about them. A shared language of description, functioning and action will be necessary.

"Why would I expect to learn anything by looking there?

"1) The intrusion of these new technologies are recent (less so for motorcycles and cars, more so for handphones and computers). It is very unlikely that a fully articulated language of understanding and repair would have been imported, fully mature, at least for handphones, computer science has been taught for years at the university level, so that will be different. The language that emerges in everyday usage would inevitably have elements where (through metaphorical appeal) bits of Khmer would be attached to the bits and pieces of technology and to the activities surrounding its use, sale and repair.

"It would be interesting to see where and how the Cambodians would linguisically cut up the phone (as users and repairmen, not creators). Might be surprises there.

"2) Some of the language in use would inevitably be imported, but I would expect that the majority of the language used would be Khmer words and phrases which have settled meanings, long histories and common usages already. It would be fascinating to investigate if the conceptual surround of these words and the connotations that they (in their normal use) give rise to widen our understanding of the kinds of things (modes of engagement) that can be at stake or are available in the wider culture. What kind of window into current Khmer culture might such a look provide?

"3) It seems likely that similar but independent efforts (use, teaching and repair), coming to flower nearly simultaneously in geographically dispersed locations (like Phnom Penh and Battambang) without the help of repair manuals, without textbooks or technical schools, and without a long engagement with the technology to develop (institutionalize) a common language of description and function, you might find different sets of words (and perhaps regulating conceptions) used for common phrases like: 'bring me that wrench', 'this Nokia screen is damaged' in different places. What might be made of that?"

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