Language in Thought and Action’: Tips for Effective Communication(Part 1)
Why Is It Said That “Language Enables Human Progress”?
This is the second part of ‘Language in Thought and Action’: Tips for Effective Communication. For more tips, please read my other articles.
Language in Thought and Action is a classic work that has sold over one million copies and has been translated into eight languages. In this interesting and respected linguistic work, Samuel Hayakawa, a Japanese-American linguist, explores the role of language in human life, the various functions of language, how we can live and work better through language, and how language shapes our thinking (sometimes without our knowledge).
I attempted to raise seven questions to this book and found answers within its pages, as well as how I mastered the skill of expressing myself clearly through this book.
Why Is It Said That “Language Enables Human Progress”?
To understand this, one needs to first figure out what “neurological cooperation” is.
Imagine a scenario where someone yells at you, “Watch out!” You take a flying leap, thus avoiding being hit by a car. And the information you relied on to keep you from getting hurt was the form of cooperation that most higher animals rely on — language. Although you didn’t see the car speeding toward you, someone else did and made some sort of sound that communicated the panic to you. In other words, your nervous system didn’t detect the crisis, but you were saved by the detection of someone else’s nervous system. That moment when you have the help of two nervous systems, your own and someone else’s, and thus avert the danger, is the cooperation of nervous systems.
**We can think of almost all social systems, as massive cooperation of the nervous system. When we hear someone else vocalize, or see words on a page representing a sound, we are able to draw on the experience of others to compensate for our own shortcomings. And the more we can complement ourselves through the nervous systems of others, the better we can survive, not be trapped in helplessness because of our limited experiential knowledge, and not have to discover things that others have discovered long ago and repeat their mistakes, but also be able to inherit the achievements of others and move on.
**Language, the basis of large-scale cooperation of the nervous system, has become an indispensable tool in human life. **It shaped and led the human experience of yesteryear, shaped today’s life, and made human progress possible. As far as we know, cats, dogs, and chimpanzees cannot increase their intellectual knowledge and their ability to control their environment from one generation to the next, but human beings can, and this is where language comes into play.
The inventions of the printing press, building methods, and transportation, and the discoveries of literature, art, and science throughout the history of mankind have all been gifts from our forefathers who gave them to us without taking a penny. Since birth, we have enjoyed so many gifts. **Through language and the words that record it, we have been able to have the opportunity not only to live a life that is richer than that of previous generations but also to integrate our contributions, however small they may be, into the total fruits of humanity. **Thus, by learning to use language, we also learn how to capitalize on and participate in this great human achievement. With this achievement, other achievements are possible, and our experiences can be brought together to form “knowledge cooperatives” of such magnitude that each generation can utilize and benefit from them.
