How language is influenced by more than just society
Sam Norton
A&E Editor
For many, the day-to-day conversation is one that doesn’t require much thought. It’s a conversation that is unplanned. However, for some, our day-to-day conversations may be more planned than we are aware of.
While the media plays an important role in not just entertaining and informing the public, it plays a significant role in our daily conversations by influencing our word choice—and this starts at a young age.
RCA Records / AP Photo
This CD cover image released by RCA Records shows The 20/20 Experience, by Justin Timberlake. Music is just one channel of media that influences modern-day language.
According to Dr. Jeff Halford, assistant professor of communication, “When you are an infant or a toddler first learning the language, the language is clearly reflecting the culture in which you live, but it is clearly shaping the way you are going to experience your world.”
“Infants appear to understand television images, for example, months before they begin to develop any facility with spoken language,” the article “The Language of Film: Signs and Syntax,” published by Grinnell College states.
The type of culture we live in now introduces us to the language used in television, film, music and even advertisements at a young age.
The language included in these various media can ultimately help shape the language that is present in society.
Dr. Chitra Akkoor, assistant professor of communication, said that “Television as a medium is very intrusive. As far as if it affects our language, I think mainly among young people, I have noticed that a lot of the language they use is the F-word everywhere.”
However, this change from ‘clean’ language to ‘foul’ language is not only a representation of the public, but rather the type of media we now tune into.
And music and television are at the forefront of using that type of language.
But it’s how media has evolved to fit in with present-day society that has caused this change in language.
And music is a direct reflection of how society has evolved. Now lyrics encompass more curse words than they do meaning.
According to the article “Music and Language” published by the University of California at Irvine, “First, there is the seemingly never-ending debate of whether music is itself a language. The belief that music possesses, in some measure, characteristics of language leads people to attempt to apply linguistic theories to the understanding of music. These include semiotic analyses, information theory, theories of generative grammar, and other diverse beliefs or specially invented theories of what is being expressed and how.”
However, music is not the only medium that has influenced a change in language, the shows that now debut on television are no longer the stereotypical family shows that were once present in our society.
“Back in the day we used to watch ‘The Cosby Show’ and I feel like back in the day, things were so much cleaner and comedies were funny. Now, stand-up comedies are just foul words and I can’t take that anymore and I think you see that and reflect that. All you have to do is just walk along Appian Way and you hear the F-word in every other word,” Akkoor said.
Television not only embeds a certain type of language in our society, but it also creates a sense of community among the public.
“People seem to use movies or television or media—the shared experiences there—much like they would use a shared viewing of a sporting event or a shared concert or art piece—as a means of having a shared experience to reflect on later,” Halford said, “We’ve got these lines that get recycled throughout because they do demonstrate some sort of community—we at least have this in common, a common reference to rely on.”
According to Dr. Sally Joyce, professor of English, “It’s not just funny things characters say. Of course that’s important too, people repeat those things. Like when Clint Eastwood said, ‘Make my day’.”
Humans are creatures of habit, and the language we use ultimately helps us experience the world; we are not aware of the word choice we are using. “With this generation they have become so unconscious, they don’t even realize it. The more you hear it [curse words] in the media, it desensitizes you and you feel like there is nothing wrong with it because it becomes accepted as the norm,” Akkoor said.
The norm of society was once more formal writing. However, with the onset and development of technology and the media, this idea of formal writing is one that is no longer prevalent in our society. But when this type of speech composes our surroundings, it’s impossible to ignore. More importantly, it’s impossible to turn off.
“Language has to reflect what is going on, it has to keep-up, it has to update or it becomes Latin,” Halford said. While language may update as quickly as technology, it’s important to maintain a level of formality in your speech.
“It [language] seems to be becoming less and less formalized. At some point people are going to have to start using apostrophes correctly because otherwise they are changing the meaning,” Halford explained.
“They [the media] influence our use of special words or phrases and foster an informality,” Joyce said. Music, television, film and advertisements have become embedded in our culture, but they have also become embedded in our language. We are no longer solely influenced by novels or the language present among our community. Rather, we look to the media to learn what to say and what not to say. “Nobody reads anymore. I feel like reading opens up so many more opportunities for the imagination because you are going off of the description and you are creating your own image of something, rather if it is just given to you there is only one way of looking at it,” Akkoor said.
And the way language is presented to the public provides us with only one way to look at it. But sometimes what we do say is similar to earlier decades.
“Speech changes very much over time periods. Some of the slang you are using today is really from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s,” Joyce said.
While our speech has evolved over a period of time due to the media’s increasing presence among society—these various mediums have not completely changed our language; rather they have created a platform for more voices to be made known.
“I don’t believe that the media has changed how language has used at all. It has simply made more people’s voices heard,” Halford said, “A lot of messages you are getting out there from the media that you simply couldn’t care less about, don’t make you a better thinker, they don’t make you more informed, they make you better at tuning stuff out.”
Even if we tune out the media—the messages they embed, and the language present in the various mediums—it is still hard to ignore that the media is everywhere, even in our speech.
But, just because the media’s everywhere, doesn’t mean it’s our reality and has a place in our day-to-day conversations.
Akkoor said, “I wonder sometimes if you can even distinguish between that this is not reality and this is the world of imagination.”
Sam Norton can be contacted at
snorton@keene-equinox.com