What's the use of language? Why does the human race learn to speak, write, and sign? Certainly the primary purpose of language is for communication. We use language to communicate our ideas and opinions to each other. We use it to tell others our thoughts. Sometimes we tell the truth. Sometimes we tell lies. But in all these cases, the basic aim is clear: to get the ideas in our head into someone else's head. But there are several other uses of language where the basic aim has nothing to do with communicating ideas.
Earlier in the book, I talked about accents and dialects. These tell people who we are and where we come from. In both ways we express our identities.
Here's another use of language: to express our emotions. Imagine you're hammering a nail into a piece of wood, but something goes wrong and you hit your finger instead. What will come out of your mouth? But quite a few would shout, "Stupid hammer!" as if it was the hammer's fault. What sort of language is this? The hammer doesn't have a brain, so it can't possibly understand us. So what are we doing? Actually, we just want to get rid of our nervous energy. By shouting at the hammer, we feel a bit better.
We also use language to avoid embarrassment and get on with other people. Imagine people sometimes say such things as "Looks like rain" or "Lovely day" when they meet each other. They don't want to start a proper conversation, but they feel it would be rude to pass by in silence.
A. Therefore, they make a comment on the weather.
B. One of these uses of language is to express identity.
C. Of course, if you're very brave you might not say anything.
D. It shows that we're getting on well with the people we're talking to.
E. And for that to happen, we must speak them, write them, or sign them.
F. We might think the answer is very simple: to communicate with each other.
G. Rather a large number of people, I suspect, would shout out something bad.
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