I'm not really sure that we humans conceive of words properly. It seems strange that something that we invented to express our thoughts, in the most completely organic and natural of ways, could possibly be thought of, or conceived of improperly. The fact is there's more to language than just words.
Words are not only the expression of thoughts; they are also the expression of concepts. With words, and with skill, one is allowed the opportunity to convey all of the earthly experiences that humans engage in. Yet, at the same time, in some ways, something is lost through the use of words. At the same time, something is gained.
What is lost, even before one writes, is the original experience. And yet, the experience is resurrected back to life through words. Does the experience happen without an observer? Once the experiece is written about, is the original experience of any real value to the reader of the words? or is the experience the reader has in realation to the words that are conveyed paramount. Undoubtedly! its a cause of celebration that the original experience becomes secondary to the experience of the reader of words. Physics alreadyteaches us that the observer can never be taken out of the equation. What happens when observed may not happen if it is unobserved, and in the least, it does not happen for you if you do not read about it.
What is gained through the reading of the experience, is the personal "flavor" that the experience has upon the individual, which can in ways exceed the original. Also, the reader is allowed the ability to conceive of previously un-explored aspects of the original experience. And I'm not referring to hidden, or obscured meaning, rather, new understanding altogether.
For example, there is no doubt, that the experience of Jesus imbued the observers of his mystical works with a certain cognitive quality based upon the personal experience with the mystical experience. We could go on to say that the perspective of Mary, Jesus' mother was a very informative experience, pregnant with an untold number of vital insights, never to be revealed. Yet, as the story of Jesus has been told, there have been innumerable interpretations, some mystic, some formulaic (pertaining to religious organizations and interpretation) and also, some deeply personal. The point being, the very differences within the description of the mystical experiences as told by the disciples demonstrate the differences that can be had through one same experience, while also serving as an example of how those experiences, as read by others, has created an exponential number of subsequent cognitive experiences. All of the experiences emanating from that one act in time that was told in various summations by Jesus' apostles.
And so, words, and stories can convey much, and yet, always something slightly different to individuals.
And how do we think of words? Is it not amazing, when we read something that absorbs our being, and our minds so completely, that we are transported to another time and place? Is it not wondrous when words take on visual, tactile, geographic and time aspects, such that we are in the heart of the very experience? During these times, we no doubt conceive of words "properly". This is a good example of a "proper" experience.
And what is an "untrue" experience? When we "label" and define an experience thereby limiting it based upon our previous conceptions of the terms we use to describe the experience, then we have had something "untrue". or we could say we had an experience that was inauthenbtic. When an experience is limited, held back, not given full life due to our inability to move beyond the word, or to express the concept, or even to understand it, then we perhaps perceive of that concept improperly.
As an example, we can look at the bible in Aramaic, Greek, Latin and finally English. each translation changes the cultural significance, for each culture devises forms of expression meaningful to that particular culture. Arabic, no doubt, has been affected by the religion of Islam. Christianity, and so on and so forth have affected English, the other languages of antiquity are subject to the times and meanings and technologies of their age. And so when we translate a word that has significant cultural meaning in one culture, and less so in another, we lose those meanings, those subtleties, the cultural significance, and innumerable other aspects.
For example, take an English phrase and translate it into German using an online translation service. Take that very same translation and translate it back into English from German. What you will find is that you will not end up with what you started with. Strange grammar will appear. Different words than were first used. Different, concepts will be called forth even in the translation of a simple phrase.
Language is the expression of more than just concepts, or words, it's the expression of culture, tradition, formality, conventions, virtually every age, every evolution of a people, will change or effect the meaning of that language.
Which brings me to another example of the power of words.
Solomon Northrup wrote one of the most famous slave narratives in the history of the world. the story is simple, take a free Black man from New England, rip him from his family, transport him deep into the belly of Antebellum Louisiana and make him a slave. Now, look upon his words, read his experience... What can we learn? How do we feel? What do his words truly mean? What do we take from it?
The following passage is from Twelve Years a Slave ,is about a slave girl on Solomon's plantation and her woeful lot.
She had a genial and pleasant temper, and was faithful and obedient. Naturally, she was a joyous creature, a laughing, lighthearted girl, rejoicing in the mere sense of existence. Yet Patsey wept oftener and suffered more, than any of her companions. She had been literally excoriated. Her back bore the scars of and stripes not because she was backward in her work. Nor because she was of an unmindful and rebellious spirit, but because it had fallen to her lot to be the slave of a licentious master and a jealous mistress. She shrank before eh lustful eye of the one, and was in danger even of her life at the hands of the other, and between the two, she was indeed accursed. In the great house, for days together, there were high and angry words, pouting and estrangement, whereof she was the innocent cause. Nothing delighted the mistress so much as to see her suffer, and more than once, when Epps had refused to sell her, has she tempted me with bribes to put her secretly to death, and bury her body in some lonely place in the margin of the swamp. Gladly would Patsey have appeased this unforgiving spirit if it had been in her power, but not like Joseph, dared she escape from master Epps, leaving her garment in his hand. Patsey walked under a cloud. If she uttered a word in opposition to her master's will, the lash was resorted to at once, to bring her to subjection; if she was not watchful when about her cabin or walking in the yard, a billet of wood or a broken bottle perhaps hurled from her mistress' hand, would smite her unexpectedly in the face. The enslaved victim of lust and hate. Patsey had no comfort of her life.
Multiply this experience by the millions of Africans who died and lived in slavery and you have a different meaning altogether.
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