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COPYRIGHT 2002 Lutheran World Federation
Language is more than a means of communication--a neutral medium necessary for the exchange of ideas. It is an integral part of our humanity. Language not only mirrors the ideals, values, and structures of a particular society, it also plays a decisive role in shaping and preserving these ideals, values, and structures. Language, by its very nature, is a more complex phenomena than we are often wont to assume.
Several years ago while learning the German language via immersion in Southern Germany, I expressed my exasperation at the labyrinth of grammar to a Russian student with whom I was studying. He simply shrugged his shoulders and told me that in Russian, there were seven cases for each noun and men and women used entirely different grammatical constructions. "What nonsense!" I blurted out, "Why should any language have to be so complicated?" I shall never forget his response. He patiently looked at me and said: "Language is complicated because people are complicated." He was right. Attempts to uncomplicate language are attacks on the very people who speak that language.
Three popular language myths
The appeal, however, of an uncomplicated language, is strong. So also is the temptation to underestimate the complexity and implications of the language so many of us take for granted. This has contributed, in my opinion, to the rise of three fundamental language myths.
The first language myth is that language is value-neutral. This minimalist approach to language suggests that language is nothing more, or at the very most, little more than a tool. It is a means by which ideas can be exchanged but it does not itself contribute to the form or content of the ideas for which it is employed to express. Words are words are words, and it matters not--at least not greatly, in which language or in which form or stage of development of a language an idea is expressed. Grammar and rules of syntax do not prejudice ideas.
It is a beautiful myth and one that holds great appeal. Unfortunately it is a myth which is contrary to the reality of human experience. Anyone who speaks a second language well will confess that there are things in that language that can be translated into our own only with great awkwardness and no small sacrifice of meaning. The great American writer Mark Twain was once so amused at the attempt to translate one of his very rustic and uniquely American short stories "The Jumping Frog" into French, that he translated with great effect the story back into English from the French and published what had now become a comedy under the title: "The Jumping Frog in English. Then in French. Then Clawed Back a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil."
Differences in language can lead, however, to far more serious matters than the humorous accounts...
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