| Language, by its very nature, creates
problems. One of these is abstraction. In addition, language and experience are so closely
intertwined that is impossible to know which ones come first. Since each speech community
uses language in its own unique way, members from different speech communities have a
limited ability to exchange meanings. |
| People think fluently in the language
they use fluently. Thus, we don't always think of the problems we create when we don't
define the terms we use. We know not to assume that others use words as we do, but we make
that assumption anyway. |
| We also think in
polarized terms. Without conscious awareness, we place people and events into extreme
categories because of the nature of our language. But people are never purely right or
wrong, good or bad. People are complex and highly variable, and the wiser choice of
language makes that variability clear. Finally, English carries an allness assumption that
can lead to trouble. Unless we take care in qualifying the language we use, our listeners
are likely to be misled, or to catch us making a generalization that does not apply to
them. |
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