Studying Meaning

Abstract

Introductions to linguistics will usually have a section on some of the ways in which we can assign a meaning to word strings, and for the majority of us it is this ability of words to ‘mean’ which constitutes their most important function. Much of our linguistic life is spent trying either to understand others or to ensure they understand us. But here we encounter a recurring difficulty because although language is designed to enable communication, it frequently seems to obstruct it. As we observed in Chapter 2, we can never seem to find the right words when we need them. Provokingly, it is just at those moments when we need language most — when we are in love or angry — that it seems to fail us. But this is not really the fault of language itself. The difficulty has more to do with our expectations than with the system. Most of the time, language performs the necessary functions we require of it without any effort, and we assume this will always be so. But we have only to think how complex and subtle is our inner world of thoughts and feelings, to realise that the demands we make of language can only partially be realised. In Chapter 2 I quoted a few lines from the poem Four Quartets, in which the poet T. S. Eliot comments on the frailty of words and the impossible burden we impose on them. Let me remind you of them again:

… Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still.

(‘Burnt Norton’, ll. 149–53)