The Power of Language - Essay Example

?4- The power of language In writing Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem makes an excellent use of language as a device. The term ‘language’ has different contextual meaning when used in literature than it is used in ordinary context. In ordinary context, language has been explained by the Merriam Webster Diction as “the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community.” Language in everyday context is made up of letters to build up words and sentences to make sense of a message that needs to be put across to another person (Doppler, 2002). Language is made up of themes such as vocabulary, syntax, grammar and semantics. It is said for instance that “semanticists have to have at least a nodding acquaintance with other disciplines, like philosophy and psychology, which also investigate the creation and transmission of meaning” (Saeed, 2003). This system of language is also very common in literature works. However, the present situation being referred to is quite different. With reference to the current topic, the role of language in literature refers to how writers manipulate the power of communication and language to make their works meaningful. Indeed, the ability of a writer to manipulate words, structure of words and system of words in a piece of literature work constitutes literature language (Mctonton, 2008). How well a writer can be creative around language in a work of literature goes a long way to determine the class and masterpiece assigned to that work of literature. Because all works of literature make use of language, a crafty artist needs to go an extra mile to show mastery over what he or she can do with language. This is a little security of competitive advantage in literature works (Twumasi, 2009). According to some schools of thought, the role of language in literature is referred to as literary device but there is more to language in literature than literary devices though literary devices are generally aspects of language in literature (McCarthy, 2002). How writer used language as a tool in Motherless Brooklyn Language is what makes a piece of literature an art. In confirmation of this point, Norquist (2011) posits that “language is far too complicated, intriguing, and mysterious to be adequately explained by a brief definition.” Indeed, reading through Motherless Brooklyn, on can see that the author made a perfect indication of the intriguing and mysterious nature of language when he used a rather ‘bizarre’ component of language structure to distinct his work from all other forms of literature work. Thinking that the work is a narrative story, one would have expected that the writer would have depended on a very eloquent and free flowing narrator or persona. Surprising everyone and still doing it better, the writer decides to use the character of a person with Tourette’s syndrome to take the central role of the narrator. This was indeed a distinct way of using language in Motherless Brooklyn. This way, even if one wants to argue that language in literature is synonymous to literary devices, it would still be right to say that the way the writer used language by making a person with Tourette’s syndrome play the role of a narrator and a detective makes the whole work a metaphor. This is because Tourette’s syndrome is a speech disorder that would not be expected to be selected in association with narration. The presentation and style of language, which also largely concentrated on the use of a person with language deficit to play the role of a narrator, gave the story a high sense of fictionist confirmation (Toure, 2007). It is for reasons like the way the author distinguished himself in the use of language that the novel won an award for the depiction of fiction in its storyline (National Book Critics Circle, 2009). As a fiction, the writer knew that using the unthinkable language pattern would make the story more ‘untrue’ and ‘out of this world’. Tourette’s Syndrome: The connection between utterance and the phonic tics The assignment of the role of a narrator and a detective to a person with Tourette’s Syndrome has been describes as a massive strategic use of language to bring out a very high level of uniqueness to Motherless Brooklyn as a fiction novel. In this section, much attention is given to the subject of Tourette’s Syndrome. Specifically, Tourette’s syndrome will be looked in connection to poetic diction, utterance and phonic tics. In the first place the A.D.A.M Medical Encyclopaedia (2012) explains that “Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is a condition that causes people to make repeated, quick movements or sounds that they cannot control.” This means that the condition is characterised by an unintentional distortions with reference to the utterance of words. The unexpected sounds and movement are referred in medical terms as tics. Because of the possibility that tics shall be produced without notice, there is often an imbalance between utterance and phonic tics. The reason for this is that phonetics always follows a strict set of vocabulary rules that cannot always be assured in a person with Tourette’s syndrome. In line with this, Schleifer (2001) argues “that there is a correlation between poetic diction and utterance and the phonic tics (echolalia and coprolalia typical of the TS sufferer).” The simple implication to this assertion is that for utterance to be guaranteed to be of refined quality, both poetic diction and phonics must be assured to be excellent. In a typical example in the novel, we read of Lionel describing the account given by Gil on the kidnap and murder of Frank Minna as 'English might have been his fourth or fifth language from the sound of it" [p. 94]. Tourette’s Syndrome: Connection between poetry and rhythmic phenomena Another area of influence with Tourette’s syndrome has to do with poetry and rhythmic phenomena. Well, it has been said earlier that people suffering from Tourette’s syndrome can hardly predict the outcome of their speech work. In a research by Leckman et al (2006), it was found that the level of distortions and unpredictable tics varies in the number of times they occur, severity of their occurrence and the anatomical location they are likely to be found. Conversely, poetry has been defined as “an artistically rendering words in such a way as to evoke intense emotion or an ‘Ah Ha!’ experience from the reader” (Flanagan, 2012). From the definition of poetry, which should involve artistic rendering of words, one would say that poetry and Tourette’s syndrome are contrasting; especially at a time that the production of tics set in at very high frequencies. One of the features of poetry that makes it get the description of artistic rendering is the fact that the words produced are expected to be rhythmic in their flow. As a matter of fact, the power to produce rhythmic flow of words constitutes one of the most outstanding features of a piece of poem as a great one. The question however remains whether people with Tourette’s syndrome can be trusted to produce rhythmic flow of words. This question is especially important when rhythmic has been defined as a recurring movement (Farlex, 2012). Well, the answer to these rhetoric questions on the connection between poetry, rhythmic phenomena and Tourette’s syndrome has been summed by Schleifer (2001) who does not give a ‘yes and no’ answer. Shleifer (2001) therefore relates Tourette’s syndrome to functions of parts of the brain such as the thalamus, hypothalamus and amygdala and therefore states that depending on the gravity of the problem, a person with Tourette’s syndrome can be live normal intelligent lifestyle. For the author of Motherless Brooklyn, Schleifer (2001) notes that “he points to the connection between poetry and rhythmic phenomena reflected in conflicting urges towards variation and repetition, all of which are common to the tourettic sufferer.” Schleifer (2001) talks of conflicting urges because unlike the expected free flow of rhythmic pattern when reciting a piece of poetry, the Tourette’s syndrome inhibits this, making it difficult for the sufferer to freely flow with poetry recitation. Significance of the Assignment of Tourette’s role to a detective Even though Tourette’s syndrome is not a disability, it comes with a very high level of uncertainty. It is a language defect and not easily linked with eloquence in speech work. For a formal production of work such as a novel therefore, it would have been unexpected to assign the role of main character and narrator to a person with Tourette’s syndrome. So what was symbolic and significant about choosing Lionel who was a Tourettic sufferer to play that role? First, Krist (1999) notes that the selection of a Tourettic sufferer gives the novel a more glittering touch of fiction. He explains that “Lethem, after all, walks the serious-fiction beat, and in his hands the compulsions of Tourette’s become a kind of kaleidoscopic metaphor.” The point of giving the story a metaphoric touch can be deduced from Krist’s assertion also. More to fiction and metaphor, there was a great success with the assignment of the role to Lionel because it gave the story a touch of mystery. To this effect, Krist (1999) wrote that “ultimately (and somewhat paradoxically) reflecting the fundamental ethos of the mystery genre itself.” Even more, noting that the trend of detective writings have been so predictable and similar, the New York Times (2009) notes that the writer did the surprise assignment of character to go off the trend and yet achieving the expected success. Finally, the author did an excellent service to people perceived to have limited ability because of health conditions they exhibit like Tourette’s syndrome. This is because a lot of outstanding qualities were shown by Lionel such as his gift of word play, which he refers to as 'Tourette's muse' (p. 15). CITED WORKS A.D.A.M Medical Encyclopaedia. Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. 2012. Web. March 3, 2012 Farlex 2012, Rhythmic, Web. March 1, 2012 Flanagan, Mark. What is Poetry. 2012. Web. March 2, 2012 Gleason M M, Boris N W, Dalton R. Habit and tic disorders. 2007. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier. Print. Jankovic J, Lang A E. Movement disorders: diagnosis and assessment. ; 2008Neurology in Clinical Practice. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Butterworth-Heinemann Elsevier. Print. Krist, Gary, Motherless Brooklyn. 2012. Web. March 2, 2012 Kurlan R. Clinical practice Tourette's Syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2010;363(24):2332-2338. Lang A. Other movement disorders. 2007. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier. Print Leckman J F, Bloch M H, King R A, Scahill L. Phenomenology of tics and natural history of tic disorders. Adv Neurol. 2006;99:1–16. PMID 16536348 Mctonton, Isaac, , The Role of Language in Literature. 2008. London: Omega Press Series Mobilio, Albert. What Makes Him Tic?. 1999. The New York Times: New York. National Book Critics Circle. All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists. 2009. New York. Print. Nordquist, Robert, What is Language’, 2011, Web. March 2, 2012 Schleifer, R. T. 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