Tuesday, January 15, 2008

"Language: The Power We Love to Hate"

Lakoff, Robin. "Language: The Power We Love to Hate." The Language War.

"I am suggesting, then, that language not only has the ability to allocate political power for all of us as a society, but also is the means and the medium by which we construct and understand ourselves as individuals, as coherent creatures, and also as members of a culture, a cohesive unit."

This quote says it all about what language means and its infamous ways to be studied and interpreted. Language is what defines our lives, without it we would not be able to function. Our souls would have a huge void if there were no language in the world. It is true that because of language all of our thoughts and ideas are formed and constructed. Some people have abused the beauty of language and have turned it against our own good. Language has the power to change the world and everything in it. Without language the world would be meaningless.

1 comment:

Rebecca Skinner said...

This quote goes back to the one that I highlighted where Lakoff admits that language changes reality on page 21. I agree with this explanation of the quote. Language really is what constructs us as individuals and it has the power to change the world. Language truly begins with the individual, and I agree with Lakoff's argument that it has the the "ability to allocate political power for all of us as a society."