Particularity by Laura

(a) I believe that what Becker means by "language of particularity" is the uniqueness of language. Language is very unique in how it can change so quickly and how one word can mean a lot of things. But the interesting thing is (pae 73) is that "A truly interpretive linguistics, a linguistics of particularity, has yet to appear." Everyone has a different definition of "language of particularity."

(b) If we do not have an interest in how different language can be, then philology is not for us. On page 72, Becker talks about Kenneth L. Pike. Pike's "motivation towards of a linguistics of particularity" was his "conviction that one's understanding of another language, or another person, is a movement from etic perspective--an outsider's perspective--to an emic understanding, a more fully contextual understanding."

(c) "Language of philology" can help us understand and appreciate literature more because we learn how to understand others when we learn to love words. Like what Pike said (quoted above), we learn to understand another person when we understand another language.