Blog 6: The idea of the prison house of language

Language the most powerful tool we utilize each day. Consider how many people you pass by each day and just say hello to. Now imagine that the passerby you’ve said hello to was having a bad day, and that your acknowledgement was enough to place a smile on their face. So what was the controlling variable that changed their mood was it your “hello” or was it the word “hello” itself. This is where the concept of “Prison-house of Language” comes in; language alone creates and expresses meaning. So if you thought that your “hello” was what did the trick, in reality it was the “hello” itself which was interpreted by the passerby as a good remark. Similar to a light switch being turned on, you can walk into a dark room, turn on the switch and instantly the room is bright and lit up, but to get this light into this dark room you’d need electricity, which is already there waiting all it needs is to be turned on. Language ultimately controls our perception in this way; the word hello is what caused the reaction of the passerby to have a smile on their face; the reason for it is the value the word itself has created for the individual. It is as though we live our lives narrated by words, we can hear the word “Sadness” and automatically are taking to a moment in our lives which may reflect a point of sadness, or hear a story of triumph and begin to feel heroic and or victorious. Language can dictate the way we feel, think, respond, and behave. Now to further analyze the concept, it could be assumed that we place such an importance on words within our languages and that certain words trigger distinct responses depending on the level of emotion we may have that corresponds to an underlined meaning. Similar to a child, who calls out to a parent, without a trigger, how would the parent know the child is in need of them?
Now, we should not be defining language as just words alone. Body Language is another form of communication. An individual’s physical action can tell us a lot about them. From a simple crossing of the arms, we can determine that the individual may not want to be approached. Opening of the arms would have the reversed meaning. A hand shake can determine the level of an individual’s comfort zone. A tightly given hand shake can show’s presence and confidence, whereas a loose one or a so called “dead fish” can label that individual as inferior. This form of communication does in fact act as a trigger, similar to words within a language. Breaking down “Prison-house of Language” Prison is a place of confinement with no way of escape, House of language is language as in a whole, so essentially it means to be confined within the perception of language. We all view and have different meanings for words and body language, the level of importance we give to them is dictated with the action or wording used. So do we narrate these languages or do the Languages narrate us? Ultimately it’d be like the question “What came first the chicken or the egg?”