Undeniably, language is at the core of human existence. Merleau-Ponty
(1945) posited that thought and language are one - cognition being
language; language, cognition. Although such a categorical stance can be
challenged from a number of theoretical perspectives as dogmatic and
nonveridical, the critical role of language in humanness is irrefutable.
It is what defines and distinguishes creatures at the apex of the
phylogenetic scale. The fact that cognition predates verbal fluency and
can take various nonverbal forms does not diminish the pivotal role of
language - it is a functional requisite, an imperative. More than a mere
vehicle to express thought, it transforms, modifies and shapes much of
cognition. It cannot be trivialized. On many grounds man is capably
rivalled by lower forms of existence - the gazelle is more graceful; the
lion is stronger; the cheetah is fleeter. It is through his use of
symbols that man usurps the ascendant position. Cassirer in Essay on Man
(1946) described man as animal symbolicum, the animal that creates
symbols and a symbolic world. Through language, humans transcend time
and are able to describe events temporally removed - to reflect on the
past, to conjecture the future. With words man can paint pictures, muse
and dream, embrace and console, persuade and corrupt, educate and be
educated. Language is a preferred performatory domain, nowhere more than
in Western Civilization.
