Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

biophile's picture

Language being limiting

Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't call language limiting. Verbal language (or sign language or what have you) has opened up so many possibilities. Developing the capability for a relatively unambiguous method of communication was arguably one of the most important steps in human evolution. That sounds so stupidly obvious, but think about it. We rely so much on this one ability; our minds our shaped by it perhaps as much as our minds direct our use of language. It's amazing to think that the code for language is somehow locked away in our brains and that it comes to be expressed only when we're socialized. It's such a mind-blowingly complex interaction; we could never sum it up verbally or mathematically.

There are some experiences or feelings in life that are hard to sum up using the words we know, true. But I don't think that's a weakness in verbal language. Much of what we find hard to describe is instinctual and intuitive. Not only that, but trying to neatly categorize and label everything going on around us is more than we can chew. Yeah, it can be hard trying to describe the pictures we have in our heads or even the simple things we see around us, like a ray of sun lighting the outline of a tree's leaves in just a certain way. But we can't process everything. It's impossible. What verbal language has captured is pretty impressive, especially when you consider certain obscure words that condense a few sentences of meaning into a few syllables.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
1 + 14 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.