(re)Making Language by Seth Graves
Language is a powerful tool that helps connect us with the people around us while helping us find words to describe ourselves, our situations, our ideologies, or our thoughts. In this article, Seth Graves uses the popular Gothic fiction novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley as a metaphor of how the power of language can help shape our thoughts and feelings. Originally, Frankenstein was an empty shell, a newly created life form that had no opinions of its own. However, he first acquires knowledge by overhearing a conversation about human history and how many lives were sacrificed for the sake of war. Through language, he was able to obtain this new information and started to form his own thoughts on the matter. He was able to develop his own opinion against war due to him being appalled by the ability of one human to kill another. He then began to question the role of his existence within this human world as a monster. As a result, he was able to realize how lonely he felt and how much the weight of the ability to communicate to another living being had on people.
Language, Discourse, and Literacy by Seth Graves
Language is an abstract term used to describe the skill that humans have acquired over time to be able to communicate with one another in a specific community or setting. It is a flexible term that could be used to describe a wide variety of interactions between different people. Obviously, when one thinks of languages, one would normally think of the different mother tongues used in different countries or areas of the world. However, the idea of “language” can actually extend farther than that to include body language/gestures, computer codes, emojis, or even musical notes. When a group of people share a common language, it is called a discourse community. This could stretch from people of different nationalities to people of different professions to people who share the same hobbies. Literacy is one’s knowledge and understanding of a specific type of discourse within a community. Traditionally, it was defined as the ability to read and write in a certain language. However, it evolved into a broader term used to describe one’s understanding within a specific discursive space. There are also multiple types of literacies such as rhetorical literacy, cultural literacy, and digital literacy. These different types of literacies also play a big part in shaping our ideologies because the more people understand and communicate within a certain discursive community, the more they will be able to relate to/understand and form their own opinions branching off from the knowledge acquired within the discursive community.
Response
Both language and literacy play a big part in shaping our thoughts, ideas, and ideologies of the world around us. With language, we are able to exercise the ability to communicate with and understand the people in our everyday lives. It is a tool used to universally connect us and help us develop our thoughts and feelings by sharing and discussing them with others. With literacy, one is able to understand what is being said within a specific discourse community. Being literate will therefore help them relate to the different conversation topics discussed within the community. Overall, both language and literacy are a vital part of human life as a way of connecting with other people and voicing our own thoughts.