Language is so powerful!

I saw an interesting story of the Tower of Babel. It is talking about the mythical origin of language. During that time everyone could speak and understand each other by using a same language. For celebrating this, the citizens built up a tower to reach the heaven. God decided that this must be stopped. To do this the most effective way to fragment their language so that hierarchies would develop. The metaphor behind this myth shows how language can be an instrument of control.

Tower of Babel

Is this any relevance to my final essay? I can say that this is good start for knowing more about language. In Geroge Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty Four, he gives a deep analysis about the abuse and misuse of English, and also Newspeak. After studying the short article, I realize that language has a great influence on our thought. For example, Newspeak is the language that the vocabulary becomes smaller and smaller in each year. This is the method that goverment manipulate the thinking of people. Words are available for the purpose of communicating thought, when the words become limited, the way people thought will be restricted impactfully. It is not only narrowing the range of thought, but also shortening people's memories. Thus it can be seen that language can shape people thought and imagination. 

Official language~~

I have a rough ideas about language from a book called 'Visual Semiotics'. There are two kind of languages: official language and unofficial language. It is important to know what kind of language is used in different situation. 

Official language has a general codification that is sustained by creating institutional conditions which enable it to be recognised throughtout the whole jurisdiction of certain political authority. For example, our academic qualification like degree, master, phd and so on are all in the system of official language. However, unofficial language, dialect is not undergoing this institutional process of control, it is internally driven by its own independent logic. So, look at the figure above, it nicely depicts the thing I have mentioned.

Additionally, concerning about authorized language, the theatre, the lectern, the books are all instruments of on official discourse. For example, I am getting lecture from lecturers, every single word they say are just powerful to me. Why does it happen? It is because these messages are delivered by an authorized and licensed people (that's why I call them lecturers). Bourdieu calls it 'magical act'. 

In advertising field, we can see this magical act does exist, the semiotics of official corporation are employed to communicate the ideas of company. As the Colgate ads above, this brand's product becomes convincing due to the handsome portrait of the doctor on the left hand side. The 'OK' hand sign he does shows that this is product is undergoing scientific validation, and thus people will trust that this brand is reliable. The use of official and authorized language can be clearly seen. How about the unofficial language? As the older post 'Malaysia Dialect La', they are the case study of unofficial language. 

  

Resources:

Berkes, J (2000) Language as the " Ultimate Weapon" in Nineteen Eighty-Four. [Online] Available at: http://www.berkes.ca/archive/berkes_1984_language.html [Accessed: 31st July, 2013].

Crow, D (2003) Visible Signs David Crow: An introduction to Semiotic, Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA.

Salmon, A. E. (n.d.) The Tower of Babel: Language Formation Myths. [Online] Available at: http://www2.seminolestate.edu/asalmon/Language%20Creation%20Myths--The%20Tower%20of%20Babel.htm [Accessed: 31st July, 2013].