What’s in a Word?
What’s in a Word? Did you notice that we lived in the world within words? Did you notice that there was even a personality in every single word? For instance, did you notice that a word changed its own meaning depending on its cohesion with other words, the tone and gestures we supported it, the context and the circumstances in which we used it? Did you notice that a word could even change its mood, depending on how we handled it?In everyday life, we live in a world of words. Throughout the day we use words to say “Good morning!” to meet our family in the morning, start communication with different people during the day or even to greet a smartphone by playing before going back to sleep. Imagine we lived in the world that people could not use a single word. How would you feel if you would visit a shop but be able only to point at things? How would you feel if you would spend time with you friends but have to keep silence for all the meeting? How would you feel if you would not be able to say a word to your customers at work and clear up any details? Just imagine that you keep silence for a day. Would it be possible for you to survive throughout the day without going mad? Even if you spend time alone at home you would start talking with yourself or with a smartphone. Probably, you will use the internet to begin communicating with your acquaintances or read something. If we could communicate only with gestures and mimes, we would be classified as just another species of monkey.
Thesis Statement
A word is a powerful instrument with the help of which we can manipulate other people’s opinions, change our lives, and express ourselves. It is a calling card for a personality which indicates its national, cultural, and social identity.From one perspective, words allow us getting out the true purpose of the message in the covert form and incline the audience to our side. The hidden purpose can be inherent in words without discussing openly. Recently I have read the story Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell. I was impressed how masterfully he combined the words and created powerful descriptions for manipulation of readers’ opinion. In Orwell’s story, a reader may not understand the real purpose of the words which describe the death of the local man killed by the elephant: “I rounded the hut and saw a man’s dead body sprawling in the mud. He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie, almost naked, and he could not have been dead many minutes. The people said that the elephant had come suddenly upon him round the corner of the hut, caught him with its trunk, put its foot on his back, and ground him into the earth. This was the rainy season and …
