By
Obododimma Oha
Not many
people consider the fact that what they speak or what they write speaks or
gives testimony about them. Testimony about what? Testimony about
(i) their
character and preferences;
(ii) their competence
on the subject-matter and the medium;
(iii) they
way they look at the world or at issues;
(iv) their
attitude to language and its capacity to picture experience.
As a teacher
of language, I have often found myself correcting errors committed by students,
agonizing over not just their incompetence in expression, but their sheer
carelessness. If language is metaphorically seen as a mirror, whether this
mirror distorts or gives life as it is, its careless use is a big problem
generally. Language is not what you can use casually in written mode or the
spoken, unless you want to be the major casualty
at the end. It is not just that being a casualty without knowing it that this
essay is concerned about. You may wish to call this kind of casualty a casual
casualty! It is how our language production does certain things about us as users. The essay is concerned about how what one writes or speaks presents one.
When one deploys language, one often thinks of
how it would affect the addresser or the entity being talked about. Hardly does
one try to see how language used reverses and focuses on its user! It is just
like the four folded fingers symbolically pointing at their owner.
So, let us
address the first issue, which is more or less ethical. Think of the saying:
“As a man thinketh.....” That also includes: “As a man talketh....” One’s
speech or linguistic production makes a revelation about one! Well, those revelations may be
false and misleading. They may be outright deceptive and we have to dig
deeper and not take things at the
simplistic or surface level. We are not
simpletons. Anyị ekwesịghị ịbụ agụ otu obi, as an Igbo witty saying goes,
translated roughly as “We are not supposed to be one-track minded leopards.”
But whatever
the lips can express, even what they have not been overtly expressed, can
reveal the truth. Even keeping mute is revelatory. If one keeps quiet when
evils are being performed all around, that muteness loudly speaks about the
mute one. I leave experts on ambiguity to unmask the silence of both tricksters
and lambs!But there is the silence of fear and there is the silence of wisdom and
looking for a good opportunity to talk.
There are also
other ethical dimensions sometimes overlooked in language use. Call them the
language user’s face wants. The speaker or writer would like to be desired by
others, would like them to see the self as catering for their interests and
recognising their abilities, as experts in pragmatics say. The language user would also like to be seen as
somebody who does not want to infringe on the rights of others.
So, in that
case, a language user addressing a particular unpredictable audience needs to
be very careful. One cannot really tell what may be going on on the mind of a
listener, unless one is a spirit that is omniscient.
But mortals of the type we call homo
loquens (language-using) are not spirits and are far from being omniscient.
They cannot predict what assessors listening are thinking, even if armed with
the best strategies.
Lest I
forget, the testimony of an utterance may be in a given language and certain
symbolizations may be attached to the utterance in that language. I have heard
it pointed out by some literary artists that using the sounds of American
English has something to do with the pride of an American identity. English
America! Yes; English and anglicized American identity.
So, if they
call Iraq “I wrack” /ai rak/, don’t be surprised that something is being done,
maybe a continuation of war by other means! A continuation of war through
American pronunciation!
Also, the sounds
of an American English have to re-enact the defeat of the British in the War of
Independence. So, do not insist on making it Queen’s English at Harvard or
Santa Barbara for you to show that your education is authentic. You may be
linguistically annoying some listeners!
Further, if
an American athlete at Olympics chooses to call a bottle of Coke a bottle of
Soda, don’t take that fellow to the lab to carry out a test. The athlete
has already started running before the
blowing of the whistle and for that runner, America must win, as announced in
speech!
Therefore, do
not just look at competence in that person’s speaking or writing. Look for
other things hiding in the speaking or writing. Look for the thing done as language
production.
You may think
that an Achebe or Tututola is writing as directed by his incompetence in
English. You must be joking. They are doing something through language! Only
playing with English!
So, when next
you speak or write, think. Think about what you may be doing. Think about what you
may be doing to yourself and to others. Do not just say or write it.
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