Spirals to unravel a mystery: (part one). (Language).(role of sound in human activitiy)

Their talk died down into a listening silence.

--J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

LANGUAGE is an abstract noun. Attempts to define its nature have inevitably led to circuitous statements that George Steiner has aptly designated as "trivially deep". Statements such as, that language is a mode of communication, or Heidegger's plea that language is language, can add little to our understanding other than make us aware that somehow language is more abstruse a notion than our common sense would have us suppose.

Paradoxically, it is our immediate and continuous use and contact with language, and this both within our internal and external worlds, that has a tendency to numb any inquiry into the diversity of its nature. At the other end of the spectrum, our expanding knowledge about languages other than our own, where even such basic concepts as "words" and "grammar" can only be applied by doing violence to the tongue in question, constricts us to such general notions of universals that we might as well throw up our hands in a fit of frustration and resign ourselves to dumbness. To ignore the various facets of this "jewel of the mind", as language has been termed, is, however, to succumb to our presuppositions, which can be so ingrained that we only come to recognise them when faced with examples that come from outside our cultural sphere. Poised on the brink, as it were, between speech and silence, might be what the LieZi intends as the best solution when it concludes that: "to arrive at language, is to abandon language".

This refrain of Chinese poetics about language has been used again and again in a variety of contexts, from philosophical discussions, to poetry, or in the Chan-Zen dialogues between master and pupil, indeed it has taken on an almost idiomatic identity of "to reach ... abandon ...", be it about language, words or the Tao. The more one attempts to grasp it the more it becomes elusive. With language and words, we can play; we can say that to abandon language is to arrive at the meaning, but even when such an interpretation is warranted, try to define the meaning!

Shifting our attention from the temptation to grasp language as an item and keeping our focus on the play of light that each facet of the jewel reveals is no easy feat. True curiosity, however, involves detachment--a decrease of our disposition to reach conclusions in favour of keen observation. Keeping in mind that when an enquiry into language is directed to a single aspect, the resulting view can be so unbalanced that the attempt to redress it shatters what insights it does offer and that categorical assertions in this field, more often than not, obscure more than they reveal; What is left?

Delving into the "nature of language" can all too easily seem to embark on a presumptuous, if not outright pretentious task. Nevertheless there is a vast body of material that does offer pertinent insights into the workings of language. The aim of this essay is to survey the various approaches taken in the investigation of language--to search out the tendencies and patterns--this from both the scientific and literary domains, not with the hope of reaching a unifying theory or a single definition, but rather to explore the diverse facets of language and bring us a step closer to understanding why each of us, in our own fashion, grapples with the mystery of its workings. Be it in working out the meaning of a poem, arranging our words so that they reveal (or conceal) our intentions, or merely attempt to grasp the sound of a half-forgotten word. In each case, whether directly or indirectly, we are constantly shaping and moulding the way we use and understand language.