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THE POWER OF LANGUAGE: FROM HISTORY TO THE PRESENT STATE

O. Kolykhalova

Abstract

The role of language is difficult to overestimate as it is the main tool of communication, both written and oral. Language ensures historical diversity. It is an important part of identity and can be observed as “a social event” (Mikhail Bakhtin). National cultures are best embodied through languages. Losing a language therefore means a loss of historical and social richness, as well as traditional values. Preservation of language provides tradition and continuity. Attitudes to language have changed over the centuries as a result of social, political and ideological pressure. Since ancient times philosophers, linguists and researchers (Socrates, Giambattista Vico, Johann Gottfried Herder, Oswald Spengler, Martin Heidegger, Ernest Gellner and many others) have investigated the power of language in the creation of consciousness, identity and attitudes. Their arguments and conclusions are extremely interesting and valuable. At different periods of historical development the importance of language was stressed in different contexts. Even in the Biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) it is stated that Noah’s descendants tried to erect a tower that would reach heaven, but the Lord, judging them for their pride, deprived them of the common language, which made it impossible for them to understand each other. This narrative, in which linguistic diversity is explained as the punishment of God, has determined our attitude toward languages for many centuries. As a result, the conviction has arisen that linguistic diversity is essentially undesirable. Nevertheless, these linguistically diverse societies had been carrying out monolingual policies which were finally stopped by the development of multilingualism in our globalized world. Nowadays language distribution is unequal and out of six thousand languages only five of them (English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Hindi) dominate and there are those who speak about suppression of linguistic diversity. The fundamentally new communication situation forces us to rethink some basic issues of individual multilingualism connected with the process of a person’s socialization. The contemporary world abundantly provides us with new opportunities for the expansion of dialogue, cooperation and mutual understanding on a number of important issues.

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