The Purpose and Power of Language Essay -- Research Essays Term Papers

The Purpose and Power of LanguageIf you are fluent in a language, you probably dont give much thought to your ability to interact with others, to represent and be understood in your world. But what would happen if you lost your voice? Or if suddenly the language skills you have, that is your ability to read, write, and speak, were no longer sufficient to allow in you to understand television and newspapers or to tell a waitress what you wanted to eat or a doctor what was wrong with you? What if your language actually caused others to appropriate against you? I suspect your perception of the importance of language would undergo a pronounced change.Recently, I had an experience with language deprivation when I had laryngitis. The three geezerhood I was without my voice were frustrating, interminable, and evidence of the power and purpose of language. Early in her essay, Mother Tongue, Amy Tan discusses this power of language. She writes, it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a c omplex idea, or a simple truth (26). Though at times, I could whisper, people had difficulty hearing and understanding me, and I couldnt write my thoughts bolt down quickly enough to meaningfully converse with others. In short, my lack of voice impaired my ability to express myself and to communicate and indeed participate in my world. Moreover, language, the combine of specific words in a particular order, not only empowers individuals to participate as members of a designated community, it is also a fundamental key in enabling individuals to establish and define the dimensions of their identity.Language is the impetus that empowers individuals to forge ties that bind into a community, thus giving them personal, social, or cultural identificat... ...Language is many things the brass of words in a particular order, uttered in a certain way, denoting certain meaning, a political instrument which evokes images and emotion. Certainly, all of this is a exposition of the purpose and function of language. But at its most fundamental, language is quite simply the expression of self and the ability to share that expression with others. Baldwin and Tan both(prenominal) highlight the importance of language to be without language is to be voiceless, and to be voiceless is to silence the song of the self.Works CitedBaldwin, James. If Black English Isnt a Language, indeed Tell Me, What is?Across Cultures. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Singleton. Boston Allyn and Bacon,1999. 128-131.Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue. Across Cultures. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Singleton.Boston Allyn and Bacon, 1999. 26-31.