Sunday, July 29, 2007

I Love Words

People often take fluency for granted. It's not everyday that you think about words; their origins, pronunciations, characteristics. Words are rarely read- they are usually recognised or assumed from context. Eevn if I wree to dberelialty mpesilsl msot of tehse wrods, you, the rdeaer, wulod sitll udnreatsnd me.

In conversation we're particularly blinded to their beauty. We're usually far more interested in what is being said than how it's actually being communicated. We are fascinated by the fact that we can often preempt what our friends say. We attribute this phenomenon to an intimate bond between ourselves, rather than what it actually is: subconscious recognition of familiar speech patterns.

The most amazing thing about words, though, is our ability to comprehend them. Anybody who has ever had a pet will recognise an animal's ability to understand basic commands (verbs) and objects (nouns). Humans, however, are capable of understanding infinitely more complex and abstract words; prepositions, adverbs, antecedents and determiners, and this understanding is largely intuitive. In fact, it is our ability to differentiate between the words 'a' and 'the' that in turn differentiates us from animals.

Words also provide us with some historical insight. For example, about 1700 words are attributable to Shakespeare including; lonely, assassination, fixture and torture. Shakespeare also introduced various prevailing syntax conventions, such as using I to refer to oneself (I went to the market, Daniel and I, etc). In modern Hebrew the word for stroll is le'hizdangef , which was inspired when Ben Eliezer (the father of modern Hebrew) observed young couples strolling around Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv. Language is therefore evolutionary, constantly changing to remain relevant.

Most importantly, words have a profound capacity to influence us. Adolf Hitler's angry words brought the world to war and Churchill's inspirational lexis brought us out off it. When we hear the words of Martin Luther King we are in awe and when we listen to George W. Bush stumble, we are, not in awe.

Such is the power of words.

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