24.4.25. What?language,A planet like this...
The importance of language in human life has been in these Records speech, if you callback their titles, specified as: Debt, language and ‘res humanae’ (4.02.20201), True PowerIt's a language... (25.02.20201), Paradox Tower Babel 4.03.2021) or Kit and bullshit all the time (15.04. 2021) or ‘Language changes everything” (10.10.2024). Each time this was associated with a presentation of readings that were besides accessible to non-specialists, various aspects and possibilities of human “fire” of the planet and indicating ways of calling what is happening around us. Yes, it is this time.
Recently, in February this year, a Polish translation of the book under the strong title was published: The power of language. How the codes we usage in thinking, speaking, and surviving change our minds (for Alexander Gomola, Jagiellonian University Publishing House, Krakow 2025). The author is Viorica Marian, born in Moldova, an American psycholinguist and scientist who, as a university professor, studies problems related to bilingualism and multilingualism (her first language was Romanian, she besides knows Russian, the book in question, published in America in 2023, she wrote in English).
Introduction to The Powers of Language, as in the case of many another works on specified a subject, so as an “obligatory” it begins by recalling the mostly known story of the Tower of Babel. At the entrance we besides get a tiny example of its interpretation, which – incidentally – will be useful erstwhile reading present Entries not just in the context of Marian's book. In any case, the introduction to the discussion on the "potentness of language" is as follows:
Legend has it that in ancient Babylon there was a tower so advanced that it could be considered the first skyscraper in human history. Historical records confirm the existence of specified an object in the area of present-day Iraq. The Bible says that this building, the Tower of Babel, whose highest was to scope the sky, is the origin of the existence of many languages on Earth. erstwhile God saw people trying to scope his headquarters, he said: “They are 1 people, and they all have 1 speech, and this is the reason they began building. So in the future, nothing will be impossible for them, whatever they intend to do (Gen. 11:6). To prevent them from doing so, he scattered them all over the globe and divided their tongues so that they could not communicate or proceed their venture.
Language as a gateway to heaven – this message undoubtedly confirms its power. The past of Babel Tower shows how language can be a tool for both inclusion and exclusion; how it can catch communication or hinder it. another religions besides agree that if we want to scope the heights equal in the spiritual beliefs of the heavens, we must turn to the tongue. For example, the Qur'an says that only spiritual concepts for which we have the appropriate language can be conveyed to mankind: "We have sent messengers speaking only with the language of our people, so that they can explain clearly" (Sura XIV, 4).
In a short communicative Una stella tranquilla (Peaceful Star) Holocaust survivor Italian author Primo Levi beautifully writes about the limitations of language and reasoning about the world:
"Our language is inadequate to discuss stars and seems ridiculous as if individual tried to plow a feather. It is simply a language [...] born with us, suitable for describing objects about as large and long-lived as we; it has our dimensions, it is human.”
Levi notes that in time fresh words were invented to find the size of things smaller and larger than those that can be seen to the bare eye, to describe temperatures higher than the temperature of fire, and the names of numbers specified as millions and billions – that is, the quantities we did not know existed before.
Is it the language that follows our most current, most perfect knowing of the planet at a given stage, or is our knowing of the planet following the language? (The Power of Language, pp. 11-12; honor sv).
With the above-exposed, final question they correspond to the basic assumptions of Marian's work. Among them, the claim that "Language and culture are closely linked, language is simply a average of culture, and language change changes the cultural position of a person" (Jw., p. 28)). Like the thesis that: "Language is 1 of the most powerful tools available to process and organize information from the environment. At the same time, it is simply a filter for our perception of reality...” (jw., p. 72; distinctions kw). These claims show the profound meaning of human bilingualism or multilingualism erstwhile it comes to creating a imagination of the surrounding world. It is easy to agree that this is peculiarly crucial erstwhile it comes to the imagination and activity of politicians. In relation to “human universality”, however, investigation of this kind – as the author claims The Powers of Language in laboratories worldwide, indicate that:
- In older people, multilingualism delays Alzheimer’s illness and another types of dementia by 4 to six years, expanding cognitive reserves.
- In children, learning a second language means much earlier realizing the arbitraryness of language labels – milk may be called ‘milk’, leche or mole Or we can come up with another word for it. The cognition that the planet and the strategy of symbols describing it are not identical leads to more developed meta-language skills laying the foundation for even more advanced meta-pharmaceutical processes and higher order reasoning.
- Using more than 1 language allows a individual throughout his life to execute tasks related to the executive functions of the brain, so that he can better focus on what is crucial and ignore what is important.
- Knowing respective languages, we see more clearly the links between elements of reality otherwise imperceptible, resulting in better results in tasks requiring creativity and extraordinary thinking.
- When we usage non-parent language, the probability of making more logical and socially advantageous decisions (cf.
We will read a small further:
In principle, language changes people, bringing to the fore the different sides of their personalities and “including” different identities. possibly not as much as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but another language can bring to the surface an aspect of identity remaining dormant in the native language" (Jw., p. 31).
For a Book The Power of Language consists of 2 parts.
In the first – says Viorica Marian – I presented the importance of language in the life of an individual, while in the second I take a broader position and I bring its social function closer together. The languages we usage affect not only our brains, bodies, minds and feelings. Linguistic diversity and multilingualism affect the structure and functioning of society. From politics through who writes past to the improvement of discipline – the power of language is everywhere known (J., p. 132).
Among the examples discussed by Marian as indicators for the latter, we read:
When president George Bush Jr. was president of the United States, the property taxation was converted to a "death tax", the relaxation of the rules on the emanation of harmful gases into the atmosphere was called "the pure sky initiative", drilling to find fresh oil deposits was referred to as "a liable search for energy resources", and mass logging became a "initiate promoting healthy forests". On the another hand, George Biden's administration changed the terminology utilized for immigrants who had become “undocumented” from “illegal” persons and “foreign” became “uncitizens” or “immigrants”. Just as we think, erstwhile we hear the "right to life" and what is different, erstwhile we hear the "right to choose", it is more likely that the Americans will vote against the "death tax" than the "real property tax" – the first is associated with the taxation of those who mourn the deceased, the second with the taxation of the rich. specified language manipulation is not just an American phenomenon. In the media of another countries of the world, the information about the “closure of the sky” gives emergence to a completely different reaction from the message about “the plane being shot down”.
Around the world, both in democratic countries and in autocracy, words are carefully chosen and fresh language labels are created not due to the fact that they perfectly reflect what they mention to, but to change the perception behind them. The 2 most crucial newspapers in the russian Union were “Izwiestija” (i.e. “News”) and “Truth”, and the old gag about russian press propaganda said that there was no fact in “Truth” or news in “Iswistii”. The most fresh example is Russia's invasion of Ukraine called by an aggressor “a peculiar military operation (J., p. 133).
It should not be amazing that the author resembles the concept of “new” from the fresh Year 1984 George Orwell and quotes the applicable passage:
The fresh Testament was not only designed to enable Angsoc believers to express their right, binding worldview in an appropriate way, but besides to completely destruct another ways of thinking. [...] No 1 who has learned only the fresh language since childhood knew that the word “equal” utilized to mention to the sphere of political rights, and “free” could mean “free thinking”. (To usage the analogy, a man who has never heard of chess does not realize that the nouns ‘king’ or ‘the tower’ may mention to the figures utilized in this game). specified a citizen will not be able to commit many crimes or errors, due to the fact that they are unnamed and so unimaginable. (Jw., p. 134).
Marian adds:
In George Orwell's dystopia Year 1984 a totalitarian government exercises control over Oceania's society by means of ‘new’, suppressing all subversive ideas specified as self-expression and free will – according to the rule that if for specified concepts there are no words, then the concepts themselves will cease to exist. [...]
The prohibition of utilizing not so many words but full languages – it is the prohibition of a certain way of reasoning and existence in the world" (cf. p. 135).
Marian then proposes that we take a closer look at how modern politicians manipulate our language with pronouns. He writes:
Using pronouns specified as “we”, “us”, “our” in opposition to “they” and “their” emphasizes differences and puts parallels to the background, emphasizing what divides people (cf. p. 136).
Here you could immediately present a serious list of examples of language behaviors characteristic of the seismic appearances of our native politicians or utilized by commentators active in social media, and in relation to them you could re-enter the question in Marian's book: In the case of these speakers, writers, haters, including presidential candidates, does the language follow the most current, most perfect knowing of the planet today, or does their knowing of the planet follow the language? There are fresh examples here. Questions arise, how does this apply to the slogans about “free speech” and to the acquainted expression of Ludwig Wittgenstein, which, as a motto to 1 of the chapters, can be found in Marian's book: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world”?
A reading of a 1970 dystopian fresh could be considered as an intriguing context for the reflections here. Talk about Epepe Hungarian author Ferenc Karinthy (1921-1992). Recently, as part of Olga Tokarczuk's “Other Constellations” series, it was re-released (p. Krystyna Pisarska, Literary Publishing House, Krakow 2025; first Polish edition: Warsaw 1976). The book is published very carefully. It is well read, and the problem of language for its planet is fundamentally significant.
Members auEpepe under the title signaling the essence of the peripety that the protagonist of the fresh experiences – Get lost and find yourself – wrote Nicolas Grospierre, from Switzerland, educated in Paris, a sociologist who has been active in professional photography of architecture, especially post-communist, a lover of modernism and brutality. It may be worth pointing out the function of pronouns in the title of his Member. “To be lost”, in the crowd, for example, is simply a alternatively typical situation, but “to find yourself” is alternatively a different ceiling of experience. And that's what the hero of the fresh stands for. Nicolas Grospierre came out of any presumption that reading attraction would not spoil a short summary of the game Epepe. Take advantage of this:
Budai, a prominent linguist who speaks more than 20 languages, is lost in a city where you are incapable to communicate with anyone and from which you cannot get out. But what a city! The word “megapolis” seems insufficient to describe this agglomeration: huge, extensive, anonymous and alienating. This is the absolute embodiment of the 20th century city, both in terms of form and strength of the urban experience they offer. It is possibly best described by 1 word “density”. In particular, urban density – an unstoppable proliferation of buildings that spill in all directions, whose borders Budai, despite all efforts, will never be able to capture, and a powerful tendency of skyscrapers to climb upwards to the sky. But also, and possibly above all, human density – at the limit of what is bearable. The city seems to contain an unbridled, pulsating, pulsating mass. Budai is constantly being hit by an anonymous crowd akin to the raging river stream than moving on the streets of groups of people.
In addition, the city appears to be the final phase of egalitarian social integration, a circumstantial utopia of modernist visions: its population shows no visible class, sex or even racial differences (no dominant cultural group). Modernity of the city in Epepe is besides manifested in an almost complete catalog of typical institutions of the large twentieth-century metropolises specified as hotel, zoo, fair halls, police, metro, cemetery, hospital, cinema, slaughterhouse, prison – Budai has all to do with them and each turns out to be even little human and friendly than erstwhile ones.
Nature, on the another hand, is completely absent: no rivers, no larger parks, and no city boundary (which could extend fields or forests) propose that megapolis is only a product of human activity brought to the extreme. These conditions result, almost logically, in the omnipresence of a language that is uniform and universal. All these features make the city in Epepe a kind of modern Babel tower, but 1 where misunderstandings and chaos affect only 1 individual – our hero.
The full city inevitably leads to full alienation. The language is an insurmountable barrier, so Budai, struggling with anonymous mechanisms that completely overwhelm him, seems doomed to failure (Get lost and find yourself, in: Epepe, pp. 246-248).
The planet shown in Epepe and the language representing him confirms their identity. No 1 outside this planet has access to it. Not only did Budai know many languages, but he besides knew how they are usually discovered, how observations can be learned. It's all for nothing. In a unusual city he accidentally went to, his logical reasoning and conduct does not bring the expected result, it does not work. His rational, analytical attempts to discover the essence and rules of language determining the way a unusual city operates end in failure. This Tower of Babel is like a maze from which there is no way out, and the language sets its limit. Absurd chases absurd, paradox chases paradox. Surviving, but without the ability to rationally explain anything, can possibly only supply money, I suppose. Budai, as long as he had them, lived in a hotel. erstwhile they ran out, he was thrown out. He became homeless with all the consequences. For a while, it seemed that love could be a rescue for him from full nonsense and the impossibility of any agreement with others, but here besides the language created barriers. "Epepe" may be the name of the female Budai began to have feelings with him, but even what precisely that name was, he could not be entirely sure, and he lost contact with it once. Grospierre calls Kafka to describe this situation. Everything in specified a planet becomes, he writes, “a Kafka's existential anguish.” There is simply a minute in the fresh where Budai felt that he had actually loved this unusual city, but he continued to look for a way back to the planet from which he came to a unusual city, where language defines human identity, and multilingualism supports the independency of thinking, acting as Viorica Marian describes...
If, as always in the final paragraphs of these paragraphs, it is appropriate to add in the context presented Entries, attention should be paid to the problems of our education, and it should be stressed that in this respect everything should start first with a reflection on the language that we describe and then consider how to make the language skills of learners. Currently, despite constant reforms, the school only replicates stereotypes and patterns. For example, it is not adequate to change the expression ‘programme base’ by all cases if it is treated as a peer curriculum. First, it would be worth asking about the meaning of the word “base”. It is not about inserting definitions of descriptive grammar into student heads, but about reflection on speaking practice. And so on, and so on...
