Of all pursuits available to humankind, the pursuit of language is the most noble, for the principles of language are those which underlie the structure of the Earth and stars.
Because language is so close to the centre of our being, it is the source of the greatest delight, for all delights are involved with language. Great pleasure is derived from the process of communication, from the representation within of the touch of another, the sensation of skin, the sound and sense of another’s speech.
Our greatest loves are thoroughly invaded with language. Because of this, close attention to the languages we speak and use disciplines the mind towards deeper capacity for pleasure and knowledge.
I tell you, the greatest pursuit is the pursuit of language, for it is the entryway into broader and more fulfilling knowledge. It is a sin to shirk the opportunity to learn more of one’s own language or the language of others - this equates to willful ignorance and is an obdurate refusal to meet with an invitation to outreach the confines of immediate knowledge.
To increase in the knowledge of language is to increase the capacity of the self. It is the multilingual who demonstrate the most admirable intelligences, for it is they who manifest a broader fraction of the componentry of humanity, the circuitry of the City.
Fluency in language is the most satisfying of all forms of expression, for the fluent exhibit the most efficient functions of language. To be fluent in a language is to be able to speak without knowledge of where the words or grammar are being composed within you. If one is not conscious of forming a grammatically correct sentence, one is said to be fluent.
Fluency does not require the complete retention of a language, merely the correct manner of speaking. Even for native speakers of a language, there are varying degrees of fluency.
In this age where the rules of language have been so carefully annotated, it is possible to misunderstand what constitutes incorrect usage of words. In truth, it is this so-called incorrect usage which gives language its dynamism and causes it to evolve.
When people talk, they regenerate the rules of grammar as they converse. No native speaker needs to spend time learning these rules before they are able to speak. The author of speech within always conforms to the grammar absorbed from an individual’s surroundings.
If someone is using language in a way that does not conform to the agreed-upon standard, this does not imply that the speaker is lacking in fluency. There are two distinct disciplines at play: the reconstruction of language internally, which occurs in all functional human minds, and the aligning of the mind’s linguistic procedures with those of others.
Spoken language, of course, is transmitted through the medium of sound, and so the infant under construction reformulates grammatical rules according to the sound information perceived. Thus is a language created afresh on a new palette.
The concordance between the internal language of the self and that of others demonstrates the Being of language between people. Language has a form and power that we create and maintain, but which lies between us, dwells within us, rests above us, exists beyond us.
These tongues the precious oeuvres of humankind. Each patterned across the brain just one other time, language giving birth to language like a creature.
What people usually mean when they refer to language as being ‘incorrect’ is that it does not conform to the standards generally agreed upon by speakers. If language does not efficiently transmit meaning, then this weakens the power of the speaker.
But do conceive plainly that the horizons of language are indistinct. Do not imagine that language is under the dominion of those who seek to contain it in a reference manual. Even they are imbued with the timbres of each phrase, and none can secure the edges of its cloak.
Because each of us have a fresh imprint of our language clutched within, we are the owners of our own tongue. The words we choose are ours by virtue of our reconstruction of them. Every instance of speech is unique and subject to our will.
There are linguistic laws because we agree that it is so. Yet it is for each of us to speak, for each of us to call one more time each sentence to the lips. When we speak, we create.
The richest creations of speech are assembled through fresh recombinations of words. Some of the most refreshing instances of language occur when the conventional links between statements are undone and reconnected in surprising forms.
When a speaker of another language attempts my own, I am often delighted by the phrases which result. In searching for a concordance with the dictates of common speech, the apprentice, quite by accident, unravels something uncommonly exquisite.
This delight at such remarkable aggregations of phrase is derived from the depth with which we are penetrated by language. We have already seen that all that we know of is known through the system of language. If we bend the rules of the language we use, then the structure of interpretation with which we view the world is challenged and unfolds.
This secret is the privilege of masterful poetry, for it is the poets who are the architects of language. What makes the substance of poetry so satisfying is its playfulness with language, which jests with the fabric of our being.
From this we may learn of the importance of an attentiveness to language and its operations. Language places its fingers on every part of us in a ravenous desire for Being. If we understand what it is to create with language, we may understand what it means to unravel the strands of the patterns of thought and extend them.
The secrets of one’s mother tongue should be prised from every available manuscript, from each novel, newspaper, billboard and label.
The might of language should be uncovered with an understanding of poetry and a sensitivity to the methods of creativity applied to each utterance.
The guise of perceived reality should be unlatched with the immersion into foreign tongues in order to brush all sensation with new dyes.
It is principally through the mastery of language that the capacity to excel in Being may be increased. One who does so is awake to the character and brilliance of the City, which encompasses us all.
