Is it just me, or did Language in Thought and Action ignore the first part of its title? I know it's most likely because we only read the first eight chapters, but I was really looking forward to how Hayakawa was going to describe language in thought. I had never even considered what life was like before language, before common words that everyone agreed upon, until reading this book, and I found that I was amazed and confused. How did people even think without words?
We think in words and we feel in words. Society has become so used to putting a label on everything that goes on in life that people are losing the ability to really feel without analyzing or jumping to conclusions. So many couples think what they feel for each other is called "love," so they verbalize that emotion and then feel forced to do everything that other couples in "love" have done. Who knows if what they feel is strong enough to keep them together for life, or if they simply let a word they do not understand change their lives forever? Why must people assign words to such strong emotions? There have only been a few times when I have felt ways that I can't describe with words, and those are the emotions I remember most. When the words do not exist to define it, we are forced to really feel it. I think Language should leave Emotions alone. What does everyone else think?
-Alexa Kaczmarski
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I disagree. I feel like we've strayed so far from the time when the emotion was truly felt, that all we now know is the word that stands for it. I think if the words didn't exist to define it (emotion), it would cease to exist.
ReplyDelete-Bryce Cody
I agree with Alexa that language tends to create emotions that may not really exist. I wouldn't go as far as to say that human beings are no longer capable of emotion, but I do believe that the majority of emotions become blocked by our thoughts. If we could remove not only language, but also the affective connotations we assign words from the equation, we might be able to return to the time when emotions were more personal, and not dictated by society.
ReplyDelete-Tara Burns
But society makes humans feel certain emotions. Some emotions depend on interacting with other people. If emotions were made entirely personal, some emotions, such as peer pressure or feelings of exclusion (being left out of a group), would cease to exist. Emotions would have to grow from both personal and societal circumstances.
ReplyDelete-- tori lee
At least to me, it seems like everyone is taking an extreme. Language can certainly influence our emotions, but it doesn't have this great control over them. Society definitely puts pressure on people to feel some things, but a lot of them we really feel. Most people who fall in love are actually in love, word or no word.
ReplyDeleteAlso, people feel a great need to express their emotions in words. The greatest writers and poets in the world use words to express emotions like love and hate. Even in everyday life, we feel the desire to express emotions and hear others express them. Just from simple things like telling your mom you love her on Mother's Day. Of course she knows it, but still likes hearing the words.
~Becca LaRosa