Form and function are familiar categories of language that address things like syntactic structure and the purpose of such in communication. Certain forms, for instance, the practice of shortening the form of very common words such as “woman” -> “women” rather than “woman” -> “womans”, are thought to be economical in our use of language and allow our brains to process them more effectively. Form and function are connected and we use syntactic and semantic tools to express this connection. A word, phrase or sentence that is frequently used can be made more economical to aid in comprehension as we saw in the case of “women”. Another example is iconicity, that is, when the utterance reflects the logical structure of the thing being described in the real world. It can help us to understand sentences quickly so that the purpose of our communication is carried out more readily. Take “the big brown wooden box”. Which of those attributes is most inherently true of the box? It could be wooden but black, or wooden and brown but small. The order of the adjectives is reflecting the level to which each is inherently true of the box the closer they get it it. This arguably helps us process such a logical reflection of the real world more effectively. For example, a parent telling a child who has dumped their red legos into the laundry basket to, “pick out all of the small red plastic blocks!”, might have better luck than the one asking that they, “ pick out the small blocks red plastic.”
The “Why” of Language – Form, Function, and Beauty
But, if languages can only be categorised by their form to the end of usefulness, why not just have one? Why don’t we all decide on one, easily formed, easily processed language and get things done more effectively? Well, apart from the fact that there would probably be years of raging debate as to what exactly is the best form or the quickest to comprehend, I thinking we’re missing at least one other category – beauty.
I mean, take a house. It’s there for shelter against the elements, protection of ourselves and our belongings and a place to have friends over. Why not all just pick a basic form of a house that will do the job and paint it brown? Actually, why paint it all? It’s fulfilling its form and function.
But, we don’t do that. We decorate our houses, embellish them with ornaments and attractive lighting, hang portraits and paint walls. We are created, not just to find forms that help us to function, but to create. And to express our unique and individual identities. Sometimes those align more with some than others, but there is beauty in the difference. There is also beauty in the common threads that run through even the most distinct of tastes. The same is true of language, I believe. We hear of Babel as a curse, and so it was. But given time and different circumstances (i.e., a little less of the “let’s all take over the world”), maybe the people of Babel couldn’t have helped but come up with new clever words and code languages to have fun with friends. Think of Tolkien! Perhaps they would have developed different dialects based on their values, interests and cultures that would eventually evolve into distinct languages and families embellished with syntactic secrets that the rest of us get to discover and explore.
Speculation? Yes. But, we’re created to create. I can’t help myself.
Ciara Anderson, PhD 