Language has always had its limitations. I lost the plot!! but i never thought of buying one. There is that element of variety and overwhelmingness associated with languages , but sometimes it seems that the reverence for everything that is “huge” and has got lot of history attached to it has nothing to do with what we are and what we may want (if we come to know) , the best possible case is knowing a language.
Doing away with multiple languages is farfetched, but im certainly in for the need of just one language which is free from the ambiguities( not taking anything away from the burlesque and fantastic nature of ambiguities) involved in the present day communicatory mediums. We are caught(a bit too much) between “what is said” and “what is meant ” that we loose the plot. Most of the philosophies sometimes just become playful exhibition of words( not to take away the brilliance) , discussions revolve around words, we usually misunderstand a person or a situtation itself(sometimes) because we interpret certain things in our own “language”(both literally and metaphorically).
I personally take the other route of going for learning various lingos so that i can minimize the communication gap , but that again is helpful as far as getting aquainted with somebody or finishing a transaction which will involve no personal relationship with somebody (is it?, personal relationship because that is what grows into groups and later into societies) . I feel english has atleast started well and may take over as the “one” single language that people will use when they want to be at their undeceiving best, but its a long way to the top , in a country were i half belong to , people get atleast a bit judgemental (and so on) of the person who speaks good english.
Language is still far behind when it comes to expressing emotions(such as love & hatred), i know they do it, but i doubt if they can capture the intensity of the emotions. No language(atleast the few of i know) can capture the best of all the worlds , urdu is poetic, hindi is scientific , english is informal(because it is used by so many non-native speakers, i dont know if such a deduction is “right”). This is a bit similar when it comes to learning programming languages (trying to learn languages rather than learning how to solve the problem) , no-one programming language is a cure for all(if you know what i mean) . Similary no form of language used for communication is good enough for us to switch on the fan , move the regulator to 4 and feel the exact amount of air all the time.
To spice it up more, language sometimes misleads a lot esp. when it becomes expression and is let out in the form of music and literature(again not to undermine the beauty) . They can and do make unprecedented changes to our lives everyday. I find myself(owing to my lack of knowledge also) “toolless” when i want to express something most of the times. I usually end up being open-ended(or adding lot of things to in the brackets like this) and that is how i intend it to be when it comes to matters such as the present one. Even “nothing” is not able to be percieved correctly as nothing, because nothing can imply various things. People have tried and there are auxillary and “controlled languages(limited grammar and vocabulary”, but It seems too soon for such or a eric clapton kind of sign language adoption.
update : Written language is actually the source of greatest expression for most of us. Verbal communication using language is more effective since it involves gestures, but the expression itself cannot be complete(i think), because thoughts expressed are usually not well thought out and also they are influenced by other factors surrounding the discussions. Language is a device, may be the device is good, may be the limitation is in us, may be we don’t make enough efforts to use it in a manner which is unambiguous and perfectly capable of conveying the ideas.
