Roles Of Language Essay

867 Words4 Pages

The importance of language in our daily intercourse cannot be gainsaid. It is a tool for communication (verbal or otherwise) used for passing information to others. In most cases a language forms a basis for ethnic, regional or cultural identity. In this essay however, it would be examined that the role of language is not just limited to communication or the sense of identity and belongingness as Emily Martin mentions in “Egg and the Sperm: How Science has constructed a romance based stereotypical male-female roles”. Indeed taboos are also encoded in it and use of language to stereotype is central to our perception of the world around us. On the other hand Derrick Jenson in “A Language Older Than Words” talks about how language has a lot to …show more content…

Martin says “All three of these revisionist accounts of egg and sperm cannot seem to escape the hierarchical imagery of older accounts.” The fact is simple men dominated in the past and the image just sticks, it doesn’t matter if one is talking about science, sports, or society; the language and as a result the sentiments attached tend to remain in inertia and descriptions are marred with stereotypes. Jensen recounts lack of language and the resulting silence thereof as being the main thing that hurt him on an emotional level and caused all sorts of confusions in his childhood. Jensen mentions how vivisectionists routinely severed the vocal cords of the animals before operating on it. This was a way for scientists to pretend that the animal doesn 't feel any pain as they operated on them. By cutting the vocal cords the experimenters denied reality- “by implicitly acknowledging a silent animal” who is undergoing this torture is a living being. Martin also implies that the process of implementing and accepting gender specific stereotypes can have extreme social consequences; “It goes beyond the perception of reproductive organs as passive or active. It is a perception of cultural imagery that not only influences our understanding of the world but influences our actions and behaviours ultimately making them seem natural” (493) Language hence is a

Open Document