Do you think our language influences our understanding of the world? Does our knowledge of the world influence how we understand what people say?”
(Use examples from your own experience)
Language, the tool of communication. No matter if you’re reading a book, sending an email, having a phone conversation or in fact reading this essay, language is being used to communicate thoughts and opinions, ideas and concepts all over the world. And English has its own way of doing this, and in this essay I aim to show relationships between (the English) language and the perceptions, understanding, and knowledge of the world we live in.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
My entry for the David Crystal Scholarship.
As infants we acquired English in order to communicate with those around us, most likely our parents. As children we didn’t truly understand what the significance of the language we used was, in the same way that we wouldn’t have truly understood the benefits that breathing and eating gave us; we could understand that if we made a certain noise, or said a certain word that we would get (for example) some food, however as infants we don’t have much life experience so our tools for language are limited for the first few years of our lives. However as we get increasingly older we understand how to use language to form, word play, metaphors, to use it to make someone laugh, using it to make someone feel sad, using it to make someone feel loved and so forth.
Taking a look at the English speaking world, which is a far and wide one, in most cases Standard English will be taught to learners of the language, however due to cultural differences there will be words which will enter their version of English, these could include names for food, ceremonies and clothes associated with that culture, and so forth. In order to explain this point more the subject of technology would be a good reference point; in countries (some deemed 3rd world) they may not have encountered such new technologies like (for example) the ipod, as this concept hasn’t been introduced into some areas there is no need for the word to exist in this culture. That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day, encountering/creating things, and making language to go with said things, you wont have any real need for a word which doesn’t exist where you live/in your culture.
In our world we can understand (and give names) to abstract concepts usually based around emotions, feelings, and ideas, for example, love, hate, jealousy, freedom, justice and so forth. We can see them, and they can be hard to explain at times, but we know they exist in their own unique way. Because we have access to understanding these concepts we can build upon them, in example by telling someone that you love them, or when Moses (referencing the bible) demanded “Let my people go”, an example of wanting freedom and so forth. However if we took away these abstract words, would it also take away these abstract concepts; would it in fact limit it us (the English speakers) to not understand the concepts, and not be able to acknowledge these feelings, emotions and ideas? How would we be able to cope without these extensions of ourselves, would we become but lifeless beings?
The Sapir-Wharf hypothesis suggests that we see things differently dependant upon the culture/social background (as examples) we have grown up with, with regards to English speakers, because of the variant cluster of cultures that exist across the world, there may be more focuses on certain aspects of life, for example there are certain religions/countries which promote a tradition of pre-arranged marriages, however in the Western world we don’t see as much of this; so we can possibly say that two couples (one of arranged marriage, the other not) may perceive the concept of love differently; for example the arranged marriage couple could see it as something that grows, and to do with destiny, whereas the non-arranged couple may use the love cliché of “love at first sight” and see it that way. Therefore the language would be varied between the two couples in this example.
Saussure spoke of langue and parole, the former being to do with the language spoken by a community, the later being the language spoken by an individual. What can be noted, from my personal experience, is that I know the colloquial terms that my friends will use with each other, so as I come from the North East of England words like “why aye!”, “nee way!”, “narr like!” are used during informal conversation as these are terms we are familiar and comfortable with. However, as we are all individuals, and because of this we will have had different experiences of the world and the people living in it and so forth, we will have our own individual parole, as an example, when referring to a state of being drunk, one friend may have preference to used “hammered”, another may say “off his face”, whereas I’m content using “drunk”, they all mean drunk and we know they do, it’s just personal preference over the words we choose to use.
Within the realms of language, there will be language which is specialist (subject specific lexis) if we look at the world of jobs, in certain professions specialist vocabulary is used in order to reduce any ambiguity that may arise; someone in the medical profession will need to know names of medication as part of their job, someone who deals with computers will need to know parts of the computer as part of their job. So the (in example) doctor will encounter the names of drugs on a daily basis, and this reflects the language he will use in the (e.g.) hospital whilst speaking to people of a similar profession; if said doctor is speaking to a patient there is little point using the specialist language to converse with them (unless they happen to be a doctor or nurse). So usually the name of drug the patient has to take will be given a more general name to avoid any confusion.
In this essay I have shown the links between (the English) language, and the people who use it, based upon their culture, profession, and where they may live.
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