Language and communication are two correlated matters as the first leads to the other and vice versa. Yet, both are complicated and big matters that are not to be studied in one abstract paper but each term rather needs a comprehensive research to address its complexity. Comparing language and communication to each other would give us a simple image that communication is way broader than language while language is one way of communication. This does not necessarily minimize the complexity of the language. However, trying to research about those correlated terms would raise many questions and all those questions can not be addressed in the same paper. One interesting aspect of the complexity applies to day-to-day use of language and communication which is rather interesting to understand and explore.
Communication in the modern era is formed according to the technological development in the world. That is, technological development and the internet era have influenced and impacted many aspects of our life and among other things, communication and language have gotten their fair share of this impact. In simpler words, many communicative obstacles that used to exist before are no longer applicable on day-to-day communication as technology facilitates communication and enables effective forms of communication. In this context, one should be aware of the fact that effective communication is not only about the effective use of the language but it is a broader issue that includes everything that makes human communications easier such as enhanced intercultural skills, skills related to communication, personal skills and even language skills, according to Edwardsson (2015).
“Through my work with people I have identified five areas that need to be sufficiently developed for you to succeed with international communication. One or two of them are not enough. You need all five – in the right combination ….”
Here, it is worthy to mention that lingual skills are only one dimension of effective communication and these skills can not solely provide the effectiveness and the quality that humans seek in communication. The language or the lingual skills are a tool that is used to communicate and depending solely on this toll would not necessarily result in effective communication and does not guarantee that communication achieves the aim of effectiveness and quality. Davis (2015) gives an example of this matter and this example illustrates how the same words can be used in different ways and different meanings but they do not always deliver the message that they are meant to deliver (Davis, 2015). This example shows the importance of personal skills in achieving effective communication and delivering the right message to the audience.
The language has a communicative function but beyond this communicative function there are way more other dimensions that are related to the language. Among these dimensions, the identity of individuals is strongly related to the language. Thus, the language can reveal who the people we are communicating with are with minimum effort from their side. There are many examples of this functionality of the language such as revealing the culture that the person belongs to, where they come from or many other aspects of their identity that is expressed through the use of the language. This is not a revolutionary matter and the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, discussed this issue in his play Pygmalion and stated the phonetics reveals who people are (Bernard Shaw, 2015).
Finally, language and communication are two correlated matters that are to an extent very confusing to separate even though they are totally different terms that refer to different issues. Communication is a way broader term that among other things, includes the language, but there are way more other aspects beyond the language that are included in communication. However, the language is not a simple matter even if it is included in communication as it has further functionalities that go beyond the linguistic context and it is related to human identities and personalities.
Sources
Edwardsson, A. Cracking the Code. In Hedencrona, E., Smed-Gerdin, K., & Watcyn-Jones, P. (Eds), Solid Gold 2 (pp. 10-12). Studentlitteratur (2015).
Davis, L. Letter to a Funeral Parlor. In Hedencrona, E., Smed-Gerdin, K., & Watcyn-Jones, P. (Eds), Solid Gold 2 (pp. 13-14). Studentlitteratur (2015).
Shaw, G.B. Pygmalion. In Hedencrona, E., Smed-Gerdin, K., & Watcyn-Jones, P. (Eds), Solid Gold 2 (pp. 10-12). Studentlitteratur (2015)