Thoughts About Language

This semester, we've explored a whole array of things we can do with words--we've looked at how words can have an artistic, aesthetic aspect to them. We've seen this verbal art and verbal play. We've also see, thanks to Orwell, how language has become convoluted and can obfuscate one's meaning...we examined this in Persuasive and Political Speech. Moreover, language has taken a whole new meaning through online and mobile technologies. Instead of having face-to-face interactions, we can now convey our feelings and thoughts through the internet, e-mails, texts, and IMs. We've seen how this is intimately tied to identity and self-presentation, in that we can present ourselves in whatever way we want without anyone ever knowing the truth. This touches upon our last topic, language and self, which I think is the most interesting of them all. We've heard the saying, "Choose your words wisely", so as not to offend others, or so that we can project a certain image around certain people. We all tend to have different registers which completely depends on the situation. When we're with friends, we may speak one way, when we're with family, we may speak another. Words can thus have an effect on status.

This class has definitely given me a greater awareness of words and language in general. Orwell especially has impacted me...I'm always careful to be more selective of my words when I write papers, and even when I speak sometimes. In general though, I think I now tend to analyze what someone says, how they say it, what they "say" versus what they really "mean."