Nouns, Adjectives, and Verbs

Nouns can be helpful, but do they sometimes limit possibilities? Or Block understanding?

I first started thinking about this in Natural Building School 15years ago.
My teacher suggested that in building, it can be helpful to think of adjectives, and verbs more than nouns.
i.e.  INSULATION:  Is it spun fiberglass pink stuff with certain R-value? Something we buy from the building supply store?
OR, are we talking about something fluffy that holds air space and helps keep us warm, something that we might be able to get for free, like wool, or moss maybe...
This idea stayed with me, and started going beyond natural building.

When we are having discussions (or rants) what types of words help foster truth and understanding?

I feel that nouns are a useful shorthand.  We don't need to describe all the bits of a potato (most of the time)- we can just say, "hey can you get me some Potatoes, please." A lot faster than having to say, "hey can you get me some of those hard, lumpy, starchy, edible thingys that grow underground, please."
For those communicating in the same language, we mostly mean the same thing when we use common nouns for physical objects.

However, when we venture into the realm of ideas, concepts, and beliefs...  I feel that sometimes nouns are too reductive.
Personal and cultural backgrounds can give us wildly varying meanings for things in the realm of politics and religion especially.

A lot of "culture war"/Us-Them type arguments are based on Nouns that lump a lot of qualities together to describe the good versus the bad in simplistic slogans.
Frequently I see "Straw Man"  arguments where the supposed opponents are given all of the attributes that a group considers wicked or idiotic, so that this imaginary creature can be easily defeated to the applause of those who are already convinced of the opposite -- when actually, hardly anyone actually subscribes to the full set of opinions and beliefs of the described straw man.  Easier to label your opponent with a few buzzword nouns, than to think about the diverse set of views each person holds, and confront shortcomings in your own point of view.

Then there is the issue of technical jargon - which, for those in the know, makes relaying complicated concepts faster, but makes the uninitiated feel excluded or confused.

Certainly, I value nouns very much.  But where they are not simple catchwords for commonly understood objects and such, I feel it may be more helpful to use adjectives, and verbs more.  What qualities do I mean by the noun, what actions and functions does it have?  To reach and grasp and suss out a picture of a concept - together -  forming a real understanding between the people discussing the matter, rather than assuming that what I mean by a noun is exactly what you mean  by the same noun.

Obviously, I don't have this thing worked out into a treatise... it sounds a bit vague.
I just wonder if anyone else wants to chime in with thoughts, or experiences related to this.  Seems permaculturey enough right?

George Tyler wrote:  Seems permaculturey enough right?

Considering that in permaculture we're often interested in the "niche" something fills, or the "guild" something might fit, being able to describe that niche or guild using lots of adjectives and a few verbs, seems like a great idea! We're often *not* looking for a single noun like "comfrey" but a bunch of attributes like, "tolerates chop and drop", is "medicinal", "shades the soil". Depending on context, the same/similar word can be a noun or an adjective, but there's certainly a place for encouraging the space that more describing and less labeling can give us.

How to unpack your adjectives.

I vibe with this.
For example, I worked as a union electrician, but rather than think "union good, non-union bad" I think "union is as union does".
I like what unions claim to stand for, but I'm clear that they often fall short of that.


I have lots of "family "  and I'm a "family man".
But what does that mean?
Some of them are not blood,but we share social values, some of them are blood, but they vote differently than me.
For me it's the people I can trust to protect my children from harm that really matter, the rest is just details.


I think this question can address naming things after people.
What's in a name?
We name buildings and institutions after people we admire because of values we associate with those people.
But people are complicated and they embody more than one thing, or different things to different people.
Why not name things after the values themselves?
We argue over over what exactly liberty means, and who should have it, but we are all generally happy to have Lady Liberty as a symbol of our nation.

Yes!
'Niches in Guilds' is a perfect area where the adjectives and verbs make the most sense (to me).  
The function could be met by a far greater assortment of plants/animals/materials that might work better in different climates and individual situations than the limited single noun.  
Permaculture is great for this kind of thinking, yeah?  And descriptions over labels... I like that a lot!

Love the Schoolhouse Rock video! Haha! Simple but also so helpful.

Naming things after the values themselves seems pretty awesome to me-  rather than encouraging narccicists or hero-worship of flawed individuals.
Although I guess we would have to watch out for the 1984 type doublespeak (as always):  Ministry of Truth=Erasing Truth; Ministry of Peace=War Department, etc.

I have read a theory that since ancient times, groups tend to justify War by (metaphorically) transforming either the enemy, or themselves into "Beasts" - something less than human, or so wildly foreign as to be alien.
This happens on a smaller scale all the time, where we don't actually see the other- but rather, a fantastic version of the person or people - oversimplified or plain inaccurate.

I suppose what I am grasping toward is real conversation, genuine dialog.  Where people actually come to know each other.  I know people from a wide assortment of political and religious leanings, but by communicating without so much labeling, we seem to get along pretty well -mostly.  Though to be fair, I often stay away from discussing our differences; I tend to focus on our commonalities.... which usually outweigh the differences.

I appreciate the thoughtful responses of people here.  Thank you again to the wonderfully helpful folks who work so diligently to make this site possible.

Local legend where I grew up, claimed the city founders wanted to honor someone and name the city after an individual. This man said he did not want them to do this. So they named the town, Modesto.

Italian for modest.