Language utility

 

Language utility

Language utility means suitability of a language for a certain communicative function. The range of utility of a language improves with grammatical robustness, which itself arises from variety in use and also classification of words. The metamorphosis of a language from simple communication use, to instruction use, to spiritual use requires the accompaniment of tonal variation, dramatization, gestures, for effective communication. This form of language use tends to be more oral than written. Its complexity and robustness mostly arise from usage (word sense), which means the sense in which a word is used. For example, a dictionary may have over 50 different senses of the word "play", each of these having a different meaning based on the context of the word's usage in a sentence. Most African languages have their complexity and robustness of semantic meaning prevalently arising from this type of utilization. Context is therefore very important when trying to explain meaning in an African language, and this promotes the use of allegories and analogies where prior context isn’t readily available. This type however causes limitations on lexical variety.

In languages like Latin and English, robustness in semantic meaning is also prevalent in classification of words. Some words are subordinated to others. In linguistics, subordinate concepts are described as hyponyms of their respective superordinates; typically, a hyponym is 'a type of' its superordinate. Hyponymity is the relationship of a subtype (hyponym) to its supertype (also called hypernym, umbrella term, or blanket term). For example, red, blue, green are hyponyms of the word ‘colour’. The words red, blue, green also have their own hyponyms. An example is illustrated below.

This practice widens the semantic field of meaning lexically rather than in sense, where context or gestures, tonal variation and dramatization made orally are needed to effectively distinguish meaning. Lexical differentiation makes it easier to communicate effectively via textual means. Even when communicated orally, it still might suffice for the same meaning if the communicator is a rare good actor. Herein lies the potency of the saying “lies are better told in English”. Since the semantic meaning of subordinate hyponyms are included within that of their superordinate hypernym, one can simply switch lexical terms with the same general semantic meaning but granular differences and succeed to invoke the required emotive response. For example, the word “kill” as an umbrella term has numerous hyponyms like murder, assassinate, annihilate, exterminate, neutralize, pop, eliminate, take out, even ‘take care of’, and many more. The usage of either of these hyponyms evokes differing emotive responses due to their granular differences in semantic meaning. The switching of these terms is used for information control and also for propaganda and disinformation. To uncover mischievous switching of hyponyms, one needs to dig out the context of the events and things being described, and consequently use the right words to redescribe the scenario.

Kiswahili language has only one effective lexical term denoting “kill”, which is:

Ua³ - kill, murder

Therefore, context and other cues are required to communicate magnitude. It would therefore be very difficult to achieve disinformation by mere lexical acrobatics in Kiswahili. Other means get applied, including allusions to foreign religious meanings like “kupeleka mbinguni” for Christianity and “kupeleka ahera” for Islam.

 

References

Brinton, Laurel J. (2000). The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction (Illustrated ed.). John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Roget's Thesaurus, (1911). T. Y. Crowell Co.

Moby Thesaurus II, (1996). Grady Ward.

TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza; Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.