Instrumentalization of language as a death of language

Re-Emergence of the Language of the Birds through Twitter? (Part #3)

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The concerns cited above are indicative of what might be understood as the death of language, conventionally understood, as a primary mode of communication and a vehicle for expression of identity. As the language of "imperial" ambitions and "universal" value frameworks it is effectively dead or in a terminal condition. The process might be compared to the decline of Latin as the mode of expression of the Roman Empire, academia, and of the Catholic Church. The "instrumentalization of language" has been variously criticized.

The increasing emptiness of conventional discourse -- and its tedious, repetitive nature -- are the most obvious symptoms of this. This is exacerbated by its association with abuse of confidence (Abuse of Faith in Governance, 2009). The mode of communication through which people "live" has effectively "moved on", recalling the much-quoted verse of Omar Khayyám.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,   Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,   Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. (Rubaiyat)

Assumptions regarding the primacy of conventional language have become a trap. Despite appearances, such language is not what "real people" use to articulate their lives -- or through which their living "happens" -- in the circumstances in which they find themselves. Are "real people" to be distinguished from "virtual people" -- conceptual avatars?

Whilst linguists express fears of language deterioration, from a conventional perspective, as a consequence of electronic communication, reports note that some recognize the creative possibilities of the medium (Kristen Philipkoski, The Web Not the Death of Language, Wired, 22 February 2005; Rebecca Straw, The Internet: Communication Corruptor or Language Liberator? JYI, 20, 4. October 2010). Others argue that the trend is indeed destroying language (Joseph D. Lien, The Death of Language by Mobile Phone, Opera Portal, 3. August 2010). The phenomenon is developing simultaneously with the disappearances of many languages -- a matter of frequently expressed concern (David Crystal, The Death of Language, Prospect, November 1999)

The question is how best to distinguish the mode of communication through which people "live" from that through which it is conventionally assumed that they do. A helpful illustration is provided by the "dead" communication mode characteristic of instruction manuals for apparatus and software -- readily used for other domains of communication (legal contracts, etc). This is in contrast with the primary "intuitive" mode with which people, and increasingly the young, engage with such devices -- with recourse to manuals only as a secondary mode, preferably avoided. As a secondary communication modality it is increasingly marginalized wherever feasible.

In this light, the secondary language modality might be better understood as having been "extruded" or "excreted", as with the construction of calcified shells by molluscs -- perhaps with suitable nacreous decoration. The primary modality may make use of the secondary, but its cognitive centre of gravity is elsewhere and not defined by the excreted form. There may of course be confusion between the two modes, as when people associate their identity intimately with an automobile, home or clothing.

Of particular interest in this process of instrumentalization is the manner in which conventional language, assumed to be a carrier of value, is systematically exploited by those seeking to manipulate opinions with which values and identity have been associated. This is most evident in the case of advertising but is also evident in the case of political and religious discourse. The efforts to do so are rapidly eroding the significance of language and the unquestioning confidence people are assumed to have in it. The problematic association of valued friendship with the plethora of so-called "friends", acquired (often automatically) on social networking sites, offers another example.

The process is further exacerbated by consumption patterns in a throw-away society in which the objects so discarded were themselves acquired through the value attributed to them through language -- thereby devalued in turn. The process is ironically exemplified by the trademarking of iconic carriers of values associated with cultural heritage -- icons honoured, because of such value, in the logos of some international institutions. Most evident is the case of the trademarking of items of clothing with the names of gods of antiquity (Religious "Plastic Turkeys" -- Hermes vs the Hijab, 2003).

The relationship between these contrasting languages can be usefully seen in the light of the process identified in sociolinguistics as code-switching, namely the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Thus, code-switching is the syntactically and phonologically appropriate use of more than one linguistic variety. This may also be associated with style-shifting, namely the alternation between styles of speech included in a linguistic repertoire of an individual speaker. Interjection, whether pattern breaking or pattern-affirming, may be understood from this perspective.

And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
(T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding, 1942)

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