Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Is language just a tool?

well, hello my dear audiences, really long time from last post. i was busy, and fucked up. lack of topics and most importantly, lack of motivation.

OK, well, past was past.

May be in contrast to many answers, i will say "yes, it is just a tool". Imagine a world with only 1 language., COMPLETE fine. From bible, we known that when people were constructing Babel tower, they are speaking 1 language. But the stupid gods afraid people can finish the tower and reach him, he made people speak in different language. The similar fail argument is programming language, that, different kind of computer languages were invented for specific purpose and tasks for simplify the work load. There is a universal programming language, the machine code, which is something like what R2-D2 speaking.

Some people may argue that, single language is just not enough to express everything, for example, there are many word in French about wine and food that English don't have. But hold on, logic alert. This argument only shows that these 2 languages have their own limit but does not implies that there is no universal language that can express anythings.  For example, most people will agree that mathematics is the language of the nature.

in more practical point of view, the story of Babel tower still happen frequently in modern era. When i work with Japanese, French, German, etc, because non of them is native speaker, (me neither), sometimes, when we discussing, the phrases we used or the meaning of single word may be different. Moreover, some expression may be regarded as rude but the speaker did not aware in his own culture. All of these makes international corporation still, not really as efficient as all people speaking in same mother tongue.

There is no room for argument that the primary purpose for language is to communicate. From this point of view, only 1 single language is enough for communication. And the other function of language is just a side-dish. As it is a tool, just like any other tools, it can have other functions as sword can be well decorated, people can study the decoration. Or, this tool can be used as other circumstances, like it can be served a a social status. But the nature of it is a tool, which people used it on purpose. Language itself can be well studied. But this is beyond our topic as we can always study somethings as study how the study that study those studies.

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