To What Extent Language Is a Representation of the World

Language defines identity, and creates boundaries between self and other. In Borderlands: The New Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldua refers to the "broken" and "forked" tongues that represented the boundaries and intersections of social, cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender identities. The roots of sociolinguistic hypotheses of language suggest that at the very least, language impacts the social construction of reality, as well as psychic self-perception. According to Noam Chomsky, language use is a type of "organized behavior" that is both a cause and effect of reality (2). The study of language structure and function "can contribute to an understanding of human intelligence," (Chomsky xiv). Chomsky goes so far as to suggest that language precedes cognition in some cases, by stating that, "the study of language structure reveals properties of mind that underlie the exercise of human mental capacities in normal activities," including the use of language as a creative mechanism, form, and function (Chomsky xiv). In this sense, language does not just represent the world; it creates the world.

Decades prior to Chomsky, Edward Sapir wrote about sociolinguistics, and how language is an imperative in human cognitive and social functioning. In Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech, Sapir posits that "linguistic forms and historical processes" can help social scientists gain understanding of "some of the more difficult and elusive problems in the psychology of thought," (iii). Sapir, moreover, wrote years prior to the development of cognitive psychology, which would have a revolutionary impact on the ways language relates to social, cultural, political, and psychological constructions.

As much as language impacts psychological identity and socio-cultural identity, it is still a manifestation of culture, and is not biologically inherited -- or else all persons would certainly speak the same tongue in the same way that all persons need to use the toilet. Language is constructed in social groups; it becomes integral to group identity -- and sub-group identity. Even if all human beings have the capacity for language -- and even if that capacity distinguishes human beings from the other primates -- language is more often than not used as a means of division and separation rather than unity. Only if the Earth is invaded by an alien race would humanity suddenly find the impetus to develop a tongue common to us all.

Anzaldua, in Borderlands, points out that the evolution of a unique Chicano Spanish has made it so that Chicanos can foster a unique cultural identity. Chicanos speak both English and Spanish; they are liminal and fringe dwellers. Because their micro-tongue is considered subversive, Chicano culture is denigrated vis-a-vis the dominant culture. Language becomes a means of social empowerment; a way of forming and fostering group identity in the midst of social oppression. They can take away access to social services, but they cannot take away our pride. Anzaldua's sentiment is an echo of Sapir's assertion that "speech is a human activity that varies without assignable limit as we pass from social group to social group," (2). Language can be used to keep others out of the group: as when people will speak in the tongue that is not understandable by the outsider. Or, language can be used as a means of inclusion, as by adapting tongues to welcome newcomers.

Language has been shown to have direct impacts on the construction of reality -- and not just socio-cultural reality. For example, Hudson points out that different cultures have different "linguistic strategies" for describing spatial and temporal realities (94). For example, different cultural-linguistic groups have different means of conceptualizing direction. "Some people consistently used a left/right approach, and others consistently used compass-points; very few people mixed the two," (Hudson 94). The difference seems mundane and inconsequential, but it can highlight core ways language shapes not just identity, but reality itself. Language can shape one's physical orientation in space, in the here-and-now. Thus, language may also be able to shape one's psychic orientation and worldview.