Ullah 1

Habib Ullah

Ms. Williams-Arnold

English Language Arts 10-Honors

9 January 2018

“The Human Social Construct”

There are nearly eight billion people on earth. The way all of those people communicate,

is through language. All these years of tremendous human progress have occurred through the

utility of language. What’s amazing is that families and relationships wouldn’t even exist if it

wasn’t for language. Love, sadness, hate, and happiness would’ve ceased to exist. James

Baldwin, a famous American social critic, argues about the tremendous importance of Language

in today’s society. Essentially, language is the key to identity and social acceptance and plays an

insurmountable role in modern society. (Thesis)

In general terms, language is communication. How effective you are are determined by

your eloquent use of words, thoughts, and emotions. Your social standing and worth is usually

determined by this. For example, if you’re an excellent orator who backs up his claims

charismatically; then people will follow. In reverse, if you’re well-versed in a particular subject

area, but unable to convey meaning and understanding; then people will deem you incompetent.

Revolutionary ideas will be labeled as “ramblings of a mad men” if not portrayed in a manner

appealing to the human psyche. For example, there exist many great people in history that have

gone unnoticed because of the barrier of language. Look at Gregor Mendel, the father of
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genetics. His theory involving genetic heredity was correct, but it wasn’t acknowledged due to

the fact that people didn’t understand it .(compound-complex) Therefore, a reasonable

conclusion is that, language is synonymous with communication which is instrumental in human

social culture.

Now how exactly does language determine your identity and convey meaning in todays

modern society? Well, through communication you form world views and opinions. These

opinions, essentially shape your very existence; subsequently language controls your

destiny.(compound) Although forming opinions is very important, it isn’t the only factor that

develops your identity (complex). There exists a language or communication that occurs inside

your body. This is called the language of the subconscious. The subconscious mind is sort of a

being inside of you that’s constantly watching. It communicates with you through nerve linkings

in the brain’s right and left cerebral hemispheres. It gives bias, for every action or deed you

perform. A good analogy is that it beams you messages that you’re not aware of but still act upon

them. A sort of hidden language that dictates your actions. In this manner; the “abstract” concept

of language plays an important role in every thought, opinion, ideology, and action you perform.

One might argue that language isn’t THAT relevant to modern society. They will

articulate that social ranking, race, cultural-economic background, or social-economic

background plays a more significant role in identity and social acceptance. This is true to an

extent, but flawed. The vessel in which all these factors reside is language. For example, if

you’re culturally or socially different then your language would be different. These factors only

help build your identity; which is revealed by language. An example of this is when you are

born in an immigrant culture; you tend to be very studious. This is a result of being responsible

for the success of your family lineage who struggled to support you. Based on this, you develop
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your own form of language which deems what position you want in society and how people treat

you. As you can see, language is very intracule to modern society due to its enormous effect on

you.

Language is communication which plays an important role in modern society. It also

occurs inside your brain contributing to a majority of the choices you make. Thus, how you

perceive yourself and social acceptance is deemed by language. Language has probably affected

every single action or thought you experienced. In the end, language is what makes us human

and leads us through progressive eras. If, we could harness the full power of “language” then we

would be rewarded with a bountiful success. We as humanity should learn to embrace

linguistical differences, so we can progress even more in the upcoming decades.