What is Language?

“Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.” (Wilde, 2007)

Language is everything, and everything is language. From body language to the language of flowers, colours, and crystals, everything is down to interpretation. Language is the hardest thing to define, because, to define it, language is used. Language is emotion, feeling, and the interpretation of sounds, symbols and thoughts.
Language is defined as:

1. Communication with words
the human use of spoken or written words as a communication system
2. Speech of group
the speech of a country, region, or group of people, including its vocabulary, syntax, and grammar
3. System of communication
a system of communication with its own set of conventions or special words
i. sign language
4. Nonverbal communication between animals
a nonverbal form of communication used by birds and animals
5. Nonverbal communication between humans
the use of signs, gestures, or inarticulate sounds to communicate something
6. Specialist vocabulary
the forms of expression used by those in a particular group or sphere of activity
7. Style of verbal expression
the verbal style by which people express themselves
i. the language of diplomacy (Encarta)

This is not a very good definition; it merely groups together the different types of communication. Language is much more complex than just seven groups all in a neatly numbered list. Language is both an accident, a random misinformed system of words, but also something planned, that which makes us distinct, as a species, compared to the other species on this insane planet.

Language is all about interpretation. The most obvious example from literature comes from Romeo and Juliet. Act One Scene One shows the entrance of Romeo, when he is telling Benvolio how much he is in love with Rosaline.

BENVOLIO:
Good-morrow, cousin.

ROMEO:
Is the day so young?

BENVOLIO:
But new struck nine.

ROMEO:
Ay me! Sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?

BENVOLIO:
It was. What sadness lengthens
Romeo’s hours?

ROMEO:
Not having that, which, having, makes
them short.

BEVOLIO:
In love?

ROMEO:
Out.

BEVIOLIO:
Of love?

ROMEO:
Out of her favour where I am in love.

BEVIOLIO:
Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

ROMEO:
Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh? (Shakespeare, 2007)
Romeo’s speech shows a series of oxymorons, contradictions, thus the true meaning is up to interpretation. Benvolio wants to “weep” but Romeo expects him to “laugh” which is a type of interpretation.

Saussure (Culler, 2000) says language is randomly created. To call a dog a dog is merely an accident; the thing that makes it a dog is the fact it is not a cat. We use language to differentiate between different things; the different sounds that words create within the context of the sentence and situation, give different meanings, along with tone of voice. We are in a nomenclature, naming the differences between inanimate objects and living things; we also name the differences between the living and the dead.

Language is not an accident; no matter how random the words we actually use are, the fact we do use words and do communicate is not an accident. All animals have to communicate in order to survive, but humans have taken it one step further and used language and communication to create fiction, to attempt to define the indefinable, and to spread ideas about concepts created by language. The vicious cycle of language and defining certain things, is the very reason why the dictionary has to define itself, using more language.

Certain meanings can be lost in translation; for example, there is no Latin equivalent for many English words, even the word “English” does not have a Latin word. Likewise, the French “Je t’aime” only means “I like you” but it is used to mean “I love you” which, to English speakers, seems an odd thing to say.

Language is a system of sounds and symbols to convey meanings and ideas. It is a communication system which helps to create solutions to survival problems; humanity simply stepped it up, and turned language into a necessity, and then into a way of giving emotions and intangible concepts into tangible thoughts. Poetry seems to be the remnants of this change; the metaphors found in most poetry, especially very modern prose poetry, would not usually make sense. A line which I can call my own, “She tastes of the rainbow, that bipolar concoction of flavourings and twisted emotions” (McCafferty) would never make sense, but somehow, because of language, it has echoes of meaning, just waiting to be grasped.

Language is everything; it is based on interpretation, sounds, symbols, and more. It is silent, spoken, a subtle gesture nearly unnoticeable. It is a pattern of emphasising certain sounds over others. Language is more than just a survival technique; some theorists say that the human race will no longer be homo loquens, the talking man, but instead be homo lector, the reading man. Whether or not we will have our species renamed from homo sapiens, the wise man, to be a reading species instead, will be another debate entirely.

Works Cited
Culler, J. (2000). VSI: Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
Encarta. (n.d.). Encarta Dictionary: English (UK).
McCafferty, S. ". (n.d.). Kisses.
Shakespeare, W. (2007). Romeo and Juilet. Pennsylvania: Sony Connect Inc.
Wilde, O. (2007). The Picture of Dorian Gray. Pennsylvania: Sony Connect Inc.