Role Of Language In Areas Of Knowledge

Submitted By MeganShepherd
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Does language play roles of equal importance in different areas of knowledge? In every area of knowledge, there is a specified language that is only used in that area of knowledge. This language that is made by experts in these areas of knowledge applies only to that field, and cannot be used in any other context. However, the language specific to the, natural sciences, for example, gives the experts in that field a common language that they are able to use to communicate. Yet anyone outside of that field will not know this specified language, and therefore will not know what is being said. The different languages all have to be taught in order for the most basic principles of that field to be understood. So wouldn’t it be better if all of the areas of knowledge simply had one language that everyone understood, and that was universal? No. Every area of knowledge must have their own language because even if there was one universal language, some of the words would only be used for one, maybe two of the areas of knowledge. Nonetheless, language is used in all of the areas of knowledge. As a simple example, we could look at the language of history. As all of the other languages, history too has a specified language that only it can use. This language includes words such as; quagmire, stalemate, armada, ect. Out of the context of history class, these words mean nothing. Yet in the correct context, they have a meaning. Language is also needed to transfer information. The transfer of information is needed in all of the areas of knowledge, and the main way we achieve that is through language whether that is written or spoken language. History has been passed down through the years by people telling others their stories, as well as writing them down, once they had a language and a primitive “pencil and paper”. Recently, archeologists have found a clay tablet that contains a language that we had thought disappeared 2,500 years ago. This tablet contained the names of women who, assumedly were slaves in the civilizations they believe were in the Assyrian Empire (Besant). Scientists believe that the language found on this tablet may be one of the first in the Iranian area. If this language had not existed, we would know nothing of this culture, as we know little now. This ancient civilizations history was written down so that we may know it now, and in order for us to learn about it, we must use language. On the other hand, in order to learn about this ancient civilization and its culture, we must translate the language that they used, as languages change over time. If everyone had the same language across the world, it would make history much easier, as no translation would be needed. In some of the arts, language is used in a very different way, for a very different purpose. For example, theatre. In theatre, the actors in the plays, skits, and movies are there to entertain. They use not only spoken language, but body language. Before the introduction of sound in movies, often times, movies would have no dialogue. In these silent movies, there was no spoken language, yet the actors got their point across through their body language and the context of the film. So is spoken language really needed in the art of theatre? Not necessarily, but in today’s culture, people want and expect the people in front of them, if that be on a stage, or on a screen, to talk to them. In other aspects of the arts, such as literature, language is imperative. Literature would not exist if it were not for a written language. But that written language is not always the same throughout the world. When a book is translated, often people believe that it has lost some meaning through the process of translation; coining the phrase, “it was lost in translation”. Usually, people find one word that is being translated to be translated incorrectly. One example of this is in the title of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, many
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