Language effects on human cognition and behavior

¶ … Language Affects People -- the Power of Language

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. However, despite the fact that visual images are powerful, and the modern era is a very visual place, given the predominance of television, movies, and the Internet in terms of how people receive information and communicate with one another, language is still one of the most powerful interpersonal mediums of communication in existence today.

There are over 6,800 known languages spoken in the 200 countries of the world. ("Language Dictionary," 2006, yourdictionary.com) All languages, within their own frameworks, have words with imaginative associations that can affect the listener in profound ways. Although images may be powerful, words can create an image for the listener or the reader that is more evocative than a photograph or a painting. A picture of an apple may make the fruit merely seem flat and shiny, but only an evocative description such as a "crisp, crimson apple," by using alliteration, can suggest to another person what it feels like and sounds like when a hungry individual bites into the skin of a piece of fruit.

But words, because of their power, can also become dangerous implements. Consider the phrase "family values." Families are good things, this is a generally agreed upon principle within our culture, just as it is good to have a strong sense of values.