The Impact of the Six Languages in Today free essay sample

The American Heritage dictionary defines language as being the Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols whereas the Random House Dictionary defines language as a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. The SIX languages as discussed In Robert K. Lagans, The Sixth Language: Learning a Living In the Internet Age, are unrealistic, irrelevant In todays society, and simply a way of explaining how the world works.Who decides what language is? Once claims are made, how do we know which ones are right? Is language solely something that is spoken? In order to understand these questions more fully, twenty people were surveyed. The survey, ACCESS Language Survey 2009, was distributed to both males and females from ages ranging from thirteen to seventy-five who were from a variety of different cultures and locations including India, China, Pakistan, Canada, and the United States (for survey results see Appendix). We will write a custom essay sample on The Impact of the Six Languages in Today or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Research shows that the answers to these questions are very subjective. Results showed a wide variety in answers which proved the concept of there only being SIX languages unrealistic. Robert Logan describes languages as being generative meaning you can create others from them (Logan 2009). He states that, from a language, there are an infinite number of possible messages or meanings that we are capable of composing and communicating (Logan 2000). If languages are generative, then how, in this world today, is it possible to only have six?Consider sports for example. Sports are defined by the Random House Dictionary as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often off competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc. . From the category of sports, we have many sub categories Including football, soccer, tennis, hockey, etc Just Like from the category of speech we can create sub categories of English, French, Italian, Chinese, etc. Logan has stated that he doesnt think football Is generative (Logan 2009).Football Is generative because from that one sport we can create multiple versions: flag football, touch football, and tackle football. From each of these types of football we can create numerous strategies, styles, Although people differ in what they consider to be art, there is agreement that painting, sketching, sculpting, and building fall under tha t designation. Under the category of painting, for example, there can be oil painting, water colors, and more. From the survey ACCESS Language Survey 2009, there were two answers that most people agreed upon.The majority of the people surveyed considered speech and/or writing to be the only languages. Whereas the others considered language to be a mix of things including speech, writing, math and art. Notice how art is not considered one of the six languages but considered a language by random people. More formally, Logan defines language as a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires as well as of processing, storing, retrieving, and organizing information.. . From this definition, we are still able to see how activities such as football and art comply.For example, in the Sixth Language it is written that non-linguistic elements such as brush strokes make no sense because it does not offer any information processing. This is untrue because e do not know what every brush stroke on a painting means. It could be showing an emotion, it could be describing a personality or it could be telling a story- it is not Just a sunset or a landscape or a portrait. The languages described in the Sixth Language are therefore unrealistic, because if we go by Lagans definition of languages being generative, the sky is the limit.There is no end to the possibilities of what people today could consider a language. It is nonsensical because in no way will speech, writing, math, science, computing and the internet cover all of the languages or methods of communication out there. When we ask ourselves what languages are and where they came from, do people care? In todays society people are focused on the present and the future. There seems to be little demand for knowledge as to what has happened in the past. The six languages are proven to be irrelevant because people simply do not seem to care.What does it mean when the majority of people surveyed in the ACCESS Language Survey 2009 noted that they considered only speech and/or writing to be languages? When most people first think of language they think of speech and sometimes writing and that is it. It is hard to imagine a person going on the internet and saying Wow, what a great language- the same person who has Just uploaded new photographs on Backbone or that Just received a new e-mail from their friend in Africa.We are a very self-centered generation in that all we care about is that the internet is there and that our search engines, e-mail and other methods of communication are accessible. According to the language survey, languages and their origins proved to be virtually meaningless to the people surveyed. Although the survey proved that the definition of language is varying, there was, however, one answer almost every single person that was surveyed agreed on.When asked what comes to mind first when they think of language, eighty percent of people stated speech (fifteen percent chose writing and five percent was random). This further proves the point that many people do not believe or have never even considered possibilities such as the internet being a language. To expand on this topic, the majority of people stated that they rarely or have never thought of where languages ten (one being the most important and relevant), learning what languages are and where they came from was ranked most often as the least important activity.This proves the point that the six languages are irrelevant because people simply do not care about language as long as they are able to com municate, and perform every day activities such as go on the computer and talk on a cell phone. When people were asked what they considered to be languages, most often they answered with speech and writing. This goes to show that the creation of Robert Lagans six languages is irrelevant but an interesting and creative new way of looking at the world.When asked to describe language, linguistics student Carrie Lu summarized her reformers words defining language as being a system of communication and expression made up of words that follow a specific grammatical structure. Linguistics is defined as the science of language, yet linguistics students are taught that language is words- not art, not sports, not math. Here we find that even the language specialists have something different to say. People in linguistics use words to describe the world around them.Similarly, mathematicians use math equations to make sense of the world around them Just as scientists perform experiments in hope of understanding how something works. Long ago, the Vikings believed in many gods and goddesses- their favorite being Thro, the son of the chief god, Odin. Because the Vikings traveled mostly by sea, they dreaded storms the most. A horrendous storm meant the demons were very angry with the Vikings. However, when they heard thunder, they believed Thro, the god of thunder, was out battling the storm demons.After the storm and when the sky cleared, the Vikings took this to prove that Thro had indeed battled and had won. Similarly, we can consider the idea of global warming. By looking at trends over the past decades and by watching glaciers slowly let, we can see that the earth is getting steadily warmer. When people attempted to find out why the earth was heating up, they related it to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions which get trapped in the atmosphere, in turn, emit infrared radiation. While it seems most people agree on that, there is some dispute as to whether the gas emissions are the only factors that are contributing to the increase in temperatures. This suggests that the greenhouse effect is simply a way of explaining why we are experiencing global warming. In reality, no one has any idea if there are more variables to the equation. These methods of reasoning are similar to that of languages. The six languages along with the myths of thunder gods and storm demons and many others, are simply one way of explaining how the world around us works.Logan, like many others, has described what he feels are the six languages used in society. He has reasoned and collected evidence to back up his theories. What we can learn from the example of the Vikings and global warming is that no matter what, if you would like to believe or convince another of something, you can make up any kind of explanation necessary to make your idea sound probable Just as e have seen with the storm demons and the greenhouse gas emissions. In conclusion, the six languages are proven to be nonsensical through the inconsistency in peoples definition of language.No one really knows what language generative, the six languages discussed do not cover nearly everything that fits under that category. The six languages are insignificant in society today because people do not put much thought (if any) into what activities or notions are considered to be languages. Society seems to be becoming less focused on the past and more focused on modern day life which includes technology. For many people, as long as they are making a living and have access to the internet and phone, they are satisfied.Finally, the six languages are a way of explaining language- something we do not know all that much about. Appointing six types of languages to be the only languages in the world is simply a way of making sense of what we do, what we mean, and how we communicate. In the end, what everyone agrees on is that language is a method of communication. That is to say that is it not limited solely to the six languages of speech, writing, math, science, computing and the Internet.