The Words We Use

I find it quite interesting, the words we use to convey what we mean. As if their actual use should have any real significance to anyone, but alas, they do. Why? Why do the sounds and clicks we utter from our mouths mean so much to us? Are we not confined by them? Are not we bound by the rules and regulations of what has come to be “language”? I cannot help but ask myself, if an Englishmen were to call a ‘pen’ a ‘pen’ and a Frenchman were to call a pen ‘un stylo’ what does that make the words to us? Meaningless? For one could call a ‘tree’ a ‘tree’ and if it just so happened that I would like to call it something different, why couldn’t it be so? What makes the speaking of the vowels and consonants which make the sound ‘tree’ that makes it so? We shall explore this, because it makes little sense to run around calling things that they aren’t –just because you think language is binding, and you’d like to call things as you see them-and you’d be called a fool and locked up for it anyway. So let us explore why this has happened. The stories of the ancient forgers of language (and I do not pretend to be a scholar on this subject) can be taken back very far, but let us not forget that even then, so long ago, the language and the words they used – they made up! For it was to be done no other way- there is no guide to the world telling us what each thing is, so how else was it to be done? So maybe it is that we are confined to the physical attributes of our bodies, for we can only communicate in the ways that our body lets us. So in that, could we say that words and the meaning of words are confined to the noises and moaning from our mouths and throats? I think so. So why then, are we so accustomed to these words and sounds, if they are made up in such a way? Of course, the answer to this question is obvious, for one would have a hard time going about changing language and its meaning, especially under the notion that it is all made up and doesn’t mean anything- for the words they spoke would be contradictory, in that one would expect them to mean something to others, when he’s really advocating for the opposite. This would be a silly position to try and uphold, for the writing on this paper would mean nothing, and therefore be void. So we’ve become accustomed to these ‘words’ because nothing else was laid before us earlier. I assume that had a different mechanism for describing things and feelings had come before words and sounds, we would use it without a notion of doubt. That did not happen though, and I think exploring the different ways of communicating other than with our words is an alley that will lead us far from where we are headed (which is nowhere definite, I remind you). The words and their meanings are here before us, long engraved into us by thousands of years, and of course all in different languages. So instead of looking at a specific word, as we did with the Frenchman’s stylo and the Englishman’s pen, let us look at what they mean. Because on sight or audio the two are not the same, clearly, but they both mean the same thing. Are these meanings set in stone? I might say the word ‘pen’ in twenty different languages, and it still means ‘pen’. But what if one wanted to call it something different why could that not be so? If it had been made up to mean ‘writing utensil’ so long ago why can’t it be made up to mean something else? Of course, language has been in the human race as long as we can figure, and those thousands of years of evolving languages would be hard stopped by such a timid notion. Upon calculation, it would seem that these made up words actually DO mean something. Or men would not be persuaded and offended by them in such ways. For an insult hurled from the mouth hurts just as much as a rock hurled from the fist. No? But why? When the rock strikes, physical pain is felt, and the damage usually can be surveyed. When a verbal insult is thrown, it is only damaging to the person who is offended by what it means. For no one has contracted a black eye by being call an idiot. So it seems that the only meanings the words we use have, are the ones that we apply to them- and it would seem to be awfully logical that way. But as we all know, one could insult a man and have him be offended, and the next man might take it as a compliment. In that, what does the insult and its words really MEAN? It seems that it means whatever the person seems it to mean, and in that process becomes a judgment call. While we know some words have meanings that will never change, such as ‘tree’ or ‘pen’, (only because there is no way to change it, being engraved in us so), others have less concrete meanings and connotations. While these meanings and connotations are widely known and accepted in most sociable situations, it seems still that it is up to the individual to decipher their own meanings and connotations for words, and in that I suppose we could say that words mean everything and nothing at all to us. 

I’ve often felt amusement at an insult such as ‘idiot’ or what have you. Why should such a sound and “word” offend me? It just so happened that instead of using ‘idiot’ to describe something else, it is used as an insult. It could have been ANY word, and if it had been a different word, the ancient forgers as well as modern society would STILL expect me to be offended, because it has been engraved in us in such that way. So instead of being offended, I laugh at the meaninglessness of the word, call the offender a ‘spoon’ and walk away. Hoping that the ridiculousness of it stuns him, just as it stuns me.