The Limits of Language

This week, we have discussed how language can have a significant impact on character and relationships. Although I don’t believe this is true in all situations, I was still able to recall various instances in which the language of someone else contributed to my perception of them. 

Looking back, there have been multiple times when I believed I knew what kind of person someone was by the vocabulary they used. If they regularly included “big words” in their casual sentences, I immediately assumed they were really smart and liked to show it. If they had “TikTok vocabulary”, I thought I knew exactly what their sense of humor was like. However, after having further conversations with these people with distinct language habits, they usually are not the perfect fit for this cookie-cutter character category I fit them into initially. Although, yes, language can be a “window into human nature” as Steven Pinker says, and it may allow you to see the personality of others, it doesn’t even begin to reveal the rest, much like a window can’t display every detail of a house. This opens up confusion for how much power language should have in society as a whole. When should it be taken seriously and used to create perceptions, and when should it be largely disregarded as “just words”? Michiko Kakutani argues that the restriction of language in the name of political correctness will not “magically make the problem disappear”, which is largely true. But can you blame the victims of historical prejudice for getting offended when a slur that was previously used against them is slashed at them? There are so many perspectives to consider in this conversation, making it obvious that there will never be a clear agreement on the role and limits of language.