Monday, August 23, 2010

Scratchings in the Sand, Part 1

(While I try to crawl my way out of my current workload, here are a few posts I'll be doing on a whim so I can pace my poor-neglected blog. In this particular topic... trust me, it sounds crazy and it probably is. But it was fun to write. As for the matter of truth... well, take comfort in the ancient words of the Romans when dealing with these things: caveat emptor.)

it's not right to say there is a language of love but rather, love itself is a language.

specifically, love is a language between two people in a linguistic sense in that the couple exclusively creates, maintains and uses a system of symbols that reference concepts and assemble them according to structured patterns to derive expressions and meanings.

though the couple still use language to interact with other people, through time and a shared experience, they also use their own "separate" (i.e. separate in a sense that only they can understand each other) language to communicate with each other. similar to multi-linguistic people, a couple can speak "different" languages at the same time-- one for each other and another for the rest.

yes, a couple 'communicates' with each other but more than that, this communication happens on the level of language itself. Consider that language is the systematic creation and usage of systems of symbols wherein a specific sign is paired with a meaning. admittedly, love has the advantage over language in that it has non-spoken elements as well as spoken elements.

however, more to the point, language is defined as a code wherein sounds signify concepts. if we take sounds to mean the words and actions a couple does between the two of them-- and these signify concepts that are only comprehensible to the couple, doesn't that mean that they have a language of their own?

because concepts are also a symbol for the objective reality, language may also imply a particular type of human thought. this means that language can be present even when communication is not the result. this means that love is a reality. holy shit!

but i digress.

so what happens when a couple break up or fight? is it just merely the breakdown of communication, a misunderstanding? or is it a loss of language between one or two of the partners? is it possible that a language can be lost?

No comments: