{"id":221,"date":"2025-03-16T08:44:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T08:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/?p=221"},"modified":"2025-03-16T08:55:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T08:55:57","slug":"the-purpose-of-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/spanish-blog\/the-purpose-of-language\/","title":{"rendered":"The purpose of language"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I originally wrote this article on 17th September 2011. Back then, I believed that the main purpose of language was communication. Now, ten years later, after ten years of teaching and exploring languages, my vision has changed a lot. In fact, I disagree with what I wrote back then.<\/i><\/p>

So, I had to update this article. The first part is the original. After that, you can read the addendum.<\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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According to\u00a0Merriam-Webster<\/i>\u00a0dictionary, language is:<\/p>

\u201ca systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings\u201d.<\/i><\/b><\/p>

There is no doubt that the most common use of language is communicative. We need language whether to have an intimate conversation with our friends or give a speech in front of hundreds of people, but the main purpose is to transmit an idea, a thought, to communicate.<\/p>

But is it the only one? Certainly not. We use the language for other purposes, too.<\/p>

Imagine you are in a bar in, let\u2019s say in Tokyo, and you spend an evening talking to your friends. You\u2019re not \u2018communicating\u2019. You\u2019re rarely communicating. You\u2019re not presenting them with any information that changes their belief systems. You\u2019re simply engaged in a kind of social play. You\u2019re establishing social relations and creating warm interactions or determining your relationship with someone or whatever. This is the\u00a0social function<\/b>. I agree that this could be considered a derivative of communication, but communication and socialising are not always the same thing.<\/p>

In the same way, you\u2019re not communicating when you are arguing with someone. You\u2019re not listening to what the other person has to say. You\u2019re arguing. You\u2019re just\u00a0expressing your opinions or your emotions<\/b>. There is not an exchange of information there, so there is no communication either.<\/p>

Finally, language has a\u00a0cognitive function, which means that humans use language to transfer our thoughts in and out of our minds. Have you ever realised that when you think, you do it in a particular language? In my case, I do it in Spanish, but it happened to me that sometimes, I do it in English as well. It is very common when we are living in a country where our mother language is not spoken; we end up thinking of the new language. So, we use language in our inner speeches, and we are not communicating at all.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\tLanguage is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2013 Oliver Wendell Holmes<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u00a0Update 8th of April 2021\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The purpose of language:\nBeyond communication\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Why did language come about? Was it to solely communicate with other humans?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>

There are many theories, but one common thread seems to be the idea or need of expressing individuality (i.e.\u00a0putting the baby down theory<\/a>), the need for self-expression, and intentional communication.<\/p>

Baron-Cohen<\/a>\u00a0suggests that the Theory of Mind precedes language. The\u00a0Theory of Mind<\/a>\u00a0is about an individual human\u2019s degree of capacity for empathy and understanding of others, that is,\u00a0the understanding that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives different from one\u2019s own.<\/i><\/p>

This means that before language, there was an acknowledgement that the other views the world differently.\u00a0<\/p>

Therefore, the purpose of language is two-fold; it\u2019s communication, of course, but it is also self-expression. Language is all about subjectivity and nuance, not about \u201cobjective truths\u201d and \u201cneutral language\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>

Language is a tool the individual uses to convey reality. The other person can see the world through their own eyes, so to speak, and vice versa.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cWe don\u2019t see the things as they are; we see them as we are\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2013 Ana\u00efs Nin<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The purpose of language is to\u00a0express identity\u00a0(through our accent, choice of vocabulary, and our mother tongue\u2019s influence\u2026) and\u00a0subjectivity\u00a0(through our personal imagery and sensory descriptions) as much as it is to\u00a0communicate\u00a0a message. However, it\u2019s not only about communicating the message in the most objective way possible but also about what the message means to me, how I see the message, my intention when sharing the message, etc\u2026\u00a0<\/p>

See? We created the language to be able to communicate and connect with other because we realised that someone\u2019s experience of the world, someone\u2019s reality, is not someone else\u2019s experience of the world, someone else\u2019s reality. I think that behind the creation of language was the thought:\u00a0\u201cI want you to see the world through my eyes, and I want to see the world through yours so that we can get a better understanding of each other and the world\u201d.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I originally wrote this article on 17th September 2011. Back then, I believed that the main purpose of language was communication. Now, ten years later, after ten years of teaching […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spanish-blog","8":"category-education","9":"czr-hentry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226,"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}