In the Noble Lecture, Toni Morrison implies through this
reading that language will eventually die out. I disagree with this statement.
She says it will die out of carelessness, disuse and indifference but that to
me just doesn’t make sense. Language is a way people communicate with others.
It doesn’t matter if it changes or evolves overtime. People and everything is
growing and changing everyday. It shouldn’t matter whether or not people continue
to use the same form of language overtime or not as there will always be some
sort of language being used because that is how people communicate. I understand
that she is talking about what people consider to be “proper” language will die
out over time because that has already happened with slang words and such. However
just because people change words and make their own slang, that does not mean
that it is killing the that language and making it die out. If anything it is
helping it grow. People create slang words or languages from a language or word
that has already been created so slang is just kind of an add on to help that language
expand. So although language is changing overtime, it will never die out, it is
a key to how we all communicate.
I'm trying not to directly disagree with you, but I do think that our interpretations of her speech are vastly different. I had an understanding that she wasn't saying language shouldn't change, but instead that language should be something we respect. Used not to be demeaning or irresponsible, but instead language should be used to further each others knowledge, even if that means extending and adapting our language. From my understanding when she mentions a dead language, she doesn't mean like Latin -instead I understood this as a language that is used to only cause death, suffrage, sexism, racism, etc. those are dead languages according to my understanding of Toni Morrison's Nobel Lecture.
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