Communication is a part of our everyday life. We communicate
when we want to tell a waiter what we want or tell our friends how we feel.
There are times, however, that communication wasn’t clear or understood as the
speaker intended. In such instances communication was not effective. Language plays
a key role in determining whether or not communication is effective.
Language is personal and serves as a label for individual experiences.
Take for instance a tree. This tree you see in your head is probably one you’ve
always seen whenever someone has mentioned the word ‘tree’. In this case the
word tree serves as a label for something you have experienced or witnessed
whether it be in person or through some other visual form of representation. Robert
Hass explores this idea in depth in his poem Meditation at Langunitas. He
states, “Because there is in this world no one thing to which the bramble of
blackberry corresponds, a word is elegy to what it signifies.” By this he means
that there is not a single blackberry that matches the image of the blackberry
that pops up in his mind when he hears the word. In this case language has
served as a personal label for a blackberry.
Now imagine two people are in a heated argument on what the
perfect blackberry should look like. One states that all blackberries are big
and juicy, the other argues that they are small and lumpy. Since both persons
have different visual experiences for the word blackberry language becomes a
barrier for communication. There are ways to avoid this barrier. One way is to
avoid describing the specifics of what you visualize and describe objects in a
more general sense. Both people can conclude that blackberries are purple. In conclusion,
it is possible for language to serve as a barrier for communication. If you
want to see how effective your communication is with others, be sure to check
your language!
In my opinion, I believe language has it’s moments where it succeeds in situations and other moments where it fails. Language, like was mentioned in the post, does determine the effectiveness of communication. Without language, tying words to objects or phrases to actions or thoughts would be difficult. Language is needed for communication and there are times when language and conversations get lost, but yet end up having a different meaning or ideology behind what is trying to be sent across to be interpreted. Ildefonso would agree to this statement and mention how his life before language was a dark time. He doesn’t remember much of his time and how he used to communicate, but Ildefonso would agree that language is effective. In this instance language is needed, because language helps the brain think and process and in my own opinion, it helps sharpen the mind for memory. Robert Hass mentioned in the first 2 line of his poem that “All the new thinking is about loss. In this it resembles all the old thinking.”.
ReplyDeleteNot every new thinking is about loss. There may be some, but not every thinking about loss. Thinking can also be about gain. In thinking and conversing with someone or simply reading an article or novel, your mind ends up processing and expanding your knowledge. Thinking and knowledge helps language become what it is.
Thank You for your post. I totally agree with you that language is personal and serves as a label for individual experiences. But ironically, at the same time, we as men search for uniqueness. We personalize material things to the point that they only represent us. At least in one point of our lives, we have all given names to things in order to personalize them. Robert Hass would argue that words do not correspond to everything in the world they hold the possibility of real communication. However, I do believe language also plays the role of mutual overpass. Without language we cannot communicate properly and effectively with others or even with ourselves. Robert Hass has put words on a theory scale but forgot that they also weight practical experience and their relationship to the world. For material things, words personified things, humanize the meanings of things to human emotions, and effectively express the individual’s interpretation. Language does not fail communication, it idealizes the way we see and feel about everything around us and make that experience become the perfect communication that represent ourselves as special and distinctive as our words. Therefore, language is hardly a barrier but a door to the open world. Only then man can embrace his unique and personal experience and humble himself knowing that man does not know everything there is to know.
ReplyDeleteTo me, language does not fully capture or communicate ideas and understanding. Yes language is important and makes communication easier, but there are other ways to communicate just as effectively and more beautifully. In the poem, Robert Hass states, "There are moments when the body is as numinous
ReplyDeleteas words, days that are the good flesh continuing." This is referring to a woman he used to know and how he could tell how she felt, simply by touching and feeling her hands and shoulders. Her body communicated a message to him without the use of words, and he could tell this woman had a hard or even dark past. Another example of language failing to communicate a message is through something as simple as paintings. The great Van Gogh used dark colors and dark shades of dark colors in his painting 'Starry Night' to give the painting a sense of sadness or ominous feel perhaps and then used bright colors as the stars to perhaps mean optimism depending on how one interprets the painting. The point is, this painting contains no words, but yet it speaks to us in different ways and communicates a different understanding to each and everyone of us without saying a word. If you ask me language, while a wonderful tool, is not as beautiful or as meaningful as language spoken without words. Things spoken without language speak volumes to us and increase our own understanding of ourselves and others through how we see and interpret the world.
I think we kinda have the same mindset on the effect of language on communication. Although we use language to communicate with others , it still allows for things to be miscommunicated and looked at differently then what someone intended. Even though you may speak the same language as someone else, that doesn't mean y'all perceive everything in the same way. Everyone pretty much has their own form of what language they speak and which ever one they choose to use depends on where they are or who they are with. I think you used a great example with the tree and how everyone sees something different when they hear the word “tree”. This just enforces my idea of everyone perceiving language in their own way. Just because everyone that speaks a certain language shares the same words and phrases doesn't mean they share the same understanding of what it means or is. Because of this it is very debatable how effective language is with communication. However a great example of how language is effective on communication is Ildefonso discovering language. He was so lost in the world without being able to communicate when he was deaf that when he finally discovered sign language he realized he was missing out on so much. Being able to understand a language allowed him to communicate with others instead of just keeping to himself all of the time and not talking to anyone. So although language still allows for miscommunication sometimes I still think it effects how we communicate in a good way because without language we would have no way of communicating and would just make everything so much harder.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, language is an essential part of our everyday life. We use it to communicate and get our thoughts across to other people. With over one million words in the English language, there are still instances where we find ourselves lacking the right words to describe something. In "Meditation at Lagunitas," the author uses the example of multiple people's idea of the bramble of blackberry. Language failure is an issue that affects us all as communicators, not just a select group in the academic community. It's happened to all of us where we've tried to describe something to someone else but don't find the right words to say what we're thinking. Isn't it frustrating? Another reason why language failure is important to us is not being able to capture the beauty of something. At times, there is really no way to describe the beauty something we have seen and the words we do use don't do it justice. Have you ever told your friend a story that you think is hilarious but because there is no way to truly describe the event, they don't find it funny? This is where language fails; we can only communicate so much.
ReplyDeleteWe need language to communicate. Now their is different types of language such as non verbal or body language, see when we think of language originally we think of words. However, in cases like Ildefonso he did not need words to communicate with his friends because he acted them out with them. A tight knit community based on their on sole of communication through non verbal language and body language.
ReplyDeleteIn Robert Hass, Meditation at Lagunitas, Hass constantly repeats "blackberry" in his poem to make the word have a different meaning than in usual context. For example, he mentions "to which the bramble of blackberry corresponds (10)", then he repeats blackberry towards the end "blackberry, blackberry, blackberry (30)", indicating blackberry as a symbol to a bigger idea. We did this in class when we did the exercise with the word "table" and how some of us perceive table different than others even though we consider it a universal word.
Language can fail to capture an idea of the essence of the moment because we all have different minds and see things differently. We have a language to communicate but it obviously doesn't work for everyone. Sometimes what were trying to say can't be said through words because its about the meaning behind them.