The Role of Language
Discuss the role of language in relation to the construction of social reality: The focus is on human sexuality.
Language is perceived to be the best means of communication among human beings in bringing about a sense of reality. We use language in our everyday interactions with each other. According to Burr (2003), language is used to express the internal states within an individual to other people such as thoughts and feelings. By so doing our internal mental processes are being reflected to other people as a means of communication through language. Chomsky (2004) described language as being at the heart of everything humans engage in more than any other attribute. He went on to say that it distinguishes humans from other animals, if there was no language culture and cultural development would not be possible. Language is unique to humans and it plays huge roles in bringing together social reality in areas such as banking crisis, human sexuality, patriarchy and war.
The focus of this essay is on the role played by language that has been of much criticism from several feminists, that of language being gendered. There is a demarcation line between man and woman roles in the society which is reflected in the structure of the language. Feminists hold convincing evidence that the language is sexist, it places a man before woman which gives them superiority and power to come first in any natural order (Spender, 1980). Spender’s research suggested that sexism in the society mirrors sexism in the language and one has to change for another to change. The other suggestion was that of the disappearance of the patriarchal order, hoping that this will bring about changes in the language. Therefore language controls how women and men behave and interact in a society. Spender (1980) states that language bring about words which help to construct the world we live in and the same words help to structure a sexist world were women are assigned to lower positions in the society.
Language is perceived to be the best means of communication among human beings in bringing about a sense of reality. We use language in our everyday interactions with each other. According to Burr (2003), language is used to express the internal states within an individual to other people such as thoughts and feelings. By so doing our internal mental processes are being reflected to other people as a means of communication through language. Chomsky (2004) described language as being at the heart of everything humans engage in more than any other attribute. He went on to say that it distinguishes humans from other animals, if there was no language culture and cultural development would not be possible. Language is unique to humans and it plays huge roles in bringing together social reality in areas such as banking crisis, human sexuality, patriarchy and war.
The focus of this essay is on the role played by language that has been of much criticism from several feminists, that of language being gendered. There is a demarcation line between man and woman roles in the society which is reflected in the structure of the language. Feminists hold convincing evidence that the language is sexist, it places a man before woman which gives them superiority and power to come first in any natural order (Spender, 1980). Spender’s research suggested that sexism in the society mirrors sexism in the language and one has to change for another to change. The other suggestion was that of the disappearance of the patriarchal order, hoping that this will bring about changes in the language. Therefore language controls how women and men behave and interact in a society. Spender (1980) states that language bring about words which help to construct the world we live in and the same words help to structure a sexist world were women are assigned to lower positions in the society.
References: Burr. V. (2003). Social constructionism. (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. (Chapter 3 – The role of language in social constructionism) Coates, Jennifer (2004). Women, Men, and Language. Eckert, Penelope & McConnell-Ginet, Sally. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge University Press. (ISBN# 0-521-65426-2) Lakoff, Robin. (2004). “Language and Woman’s Place.” In Mary Bucholtz (ed.), pp. 39-119. Language and Woman’s Place New York: Harper and Row. (The Original Text, first published in 1975)