Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Bilingualism And The Nature Of Language

When there could be numerous words within a single language for a given idea or experience--all of the words already being inescapably arbitrary in that they could have had different spellings, sounds, and letters--the presence of multiple languages only introduces further ambiguity and arbitrariness to language.  In even just two languages, there could be dozens of words for the same concept, which means there are only more examples of how random language truly is.  Language it at its least arbitrary when words are used or created to build off of other words, making the intended meaning, if the meaning is similar to that of the prior words, more stable due to being tied to established wording, yet even here the starting point of other words is arbitrary.  Multiplying languages multiplies the examples of how random linguistic sounds and symbols truly are.

It does not follow that the concepts themselves words are assigned to are arbitrary, as concepts are objectively true or false and knowable or unknowable so that only non-rationalistic reasons for believing or rejecting them are random.  The idea, truth, experience, or object that a word references has its metaphysical identify and epistemological knowability independent of language, and yet only language or telepathy could communicate many ideas from one mind to another.  There is no way to so much as teach someone gestures for more abstract concepts and experiences without using words.  How could one communicate complicated truths like the inherent veracity of logical axioms, the inability of mere sensory perceptions to prove one is perceiving the external world as it is, or deep personal longings by simple gestures?  Short of genuinely seeing into other minds, only words can clarify to some extent what a person is thinking despite it being impossible to know anything more than what other people seem to mean by their words.

Bilingualism, or familiarity with two languages, could give a person an even greater appreciation for two facts: that concepts transcend the numerous words that by sheer happenstance became initially associated with specific ideas and that words alone can let the more precise or abstract concepts get conveyed.  Not only does bilingualism have its practical benefits in that one could communicate with more people without relying on limited gestures or facial expressions, but it also has the potential to either awaken a person to the fact that language is at its core purely arbitrary or to remind someone of just how random it really is.  Yes, languages can break off from each other, and some words become associated with certain intended meanings because they sound or look like other words that have already been established.  While this might seem to not always be random, the very fact that words must be initially contrived and assigned to concepts means that words are not the concepts that both underpin and transcend language.

Language is nothing more than a means to the end of communication that can also be used as an aid, but not a necessity, for reflection.  Because one is more aware of the nature of reality by knowing this, being able to understand two languages or more is a much deeper and more stimulating experience with the knowledge that though concepts are objectively fixed, words are created, used, and switched out for others without ever even being capable of having any inherent meaning.  Intention dictates linguistic meaning, but similar intentions must be shared by multiple people if they are to have any ease of communication.  This is how language is both purely arbitrary at its core but still objectively useful and even sometimes effective at bringing another person to think of the message specific words are meant to communicate.  Bilingualism only provides further examples of this.

No comments:

Post a Comment