Wednesday 5 December 2007

Language and 'Language'

"Without words there would be no language and vice versa": words deposited on this very blog by the same author of the the string of words unfolding on the screen at this unfolding moment...now passed. In the absence of the word 'language', however, there would still be language, or what is referred to by 'language', i.e. the words which collectively comprise a language. But if there were no language then there would be none of the words necessary to the existence of language, including, needless to say, the word 'language' itself. So the existence of 'language' owes its existence to the existence of language, but the existence of language does not owe its existence to the existence of 'language', and in the absence of the existence of 'language', that which we refer to by 'language', ie language, could still exist, but would be referred to by the form of another word existing within itself. 'Language' could come to exist within this language, but would signify something other than language.

2 comments:

Neil Forsyth said...

And there was I taking the whole thing for granted. Thanks for clearing that up, Andrew.

Anonymous said...

Your welcome, Neil. I've been under a lot of presure from concerned parents and the like to tackle the issue tackled in that piece.