Gemma is currently a Linguistics Student and works as a Steering Group Member for The National Leadership Network. She has an interest in the way language can be used and how it impacts the communications and understandings both within a group and between groups.
What sounds worse: to fall or to collapse? Is it better if something is good or acceptable? Would you rather be respected or admired?
This piece of writing originates from my involvement as a Steering Group Member for the Each and Every Child (EAEC) Language Event exploring language in this space coupled with my interest in ‘language’ as a linguistics student.
The thing that draws me to language, and by extension linguistics, lies within its barest bones, the words themselves. I am continuously amazed by what words can do alone and equal parts fascinated and scared of what they can do when strung together. This rests fundamentally in what words are. There is no linguistic definition of what a word is, this means that ‘words’ are intuitive, inexplainable. Is that not amazing; something bearing such extraordinary power cannot even be clearly defined. Words have the potential to build new worlds, reconstruct existing worlds, and bring light to the dark, but they also bear the strength to tear worlds down and can often be the darkness themselves. I argue words are the most manipulative entity there has ever been, and they will continue to be, for the weapon that makes every subsequent manipulative power so influential is words.
So, what makes them so powerful? That would be our fault, ‘our’ being society. Words and the languages they project are inherently ‘made up.’ Humanity assigned meaning to sound and then those sounds to visible pattern to better explain our world. We put our beliefs and values, thoughts and ideas, and emotions and experiences onto these arbitrary place holders, which are concepts in themselves. In doing so, we granted the weight of the world to these inexplainable conundrums; an action which we continue to pay the price for. This, in my opinion, is not the biggest issue; it’s helpful to be able to explain what’s around us, helpful to communicate most certainly, but what happens when more and more words arise to describe the smallest fluctuations in a situation or feeling? What happens when people start picking and choosing the words they use to construct the world they want you to see and to trust? What happens when people actively use words to hurt, assigning cruel meanings to label unfairly? It is in these questions that I find words hauntingly beautiful.
What sounds worse: to fall or to collapse? Is it better if something is good or acceptable? Would you rather be respected or admired? Would it hurt more to be called stupid or dull? These are all examples of synonyms, but they are also examples of why I think synonyms, conceptually, are flawed. Yes, they are synonyms in the sense that they convey similar concepts, but, to me at least, they are not synonyms when it comes to the intuitive, connotation they reflect. There are moments we actively choose ‘better’ or ‘worse’ word to suit the agenda we want to push. Similarly, a truth, time tested and stable to this day, is that one of the best ways to start a movement or invoke a trend is through words; simply repurpose a pre-existing one or make one up, and you’re halfway there. This is the influence they carry. As such, I implore you to consider the words you use, read (including this), and hear; never stop challenging the words around you.