McDermott Language Sans Words

Our discussion about Hellen Keller finally grasping language early in the semester made me ponder just what other methods of language are available to us. Yes, there are countless written and oral languages with all different characters and grammar structures, but what else is there?

Plays and stories are obviously others, as we’ve been learning about them all semester. As we saw in the Star Trek episode, myth can function (literally) as a language of its own. For example, if I were to reference Jesus, only those familiar with Christianity would understand, thus making it a language only we could communicate in. (I will discuss how social media affects language and myth in a different post due to length reasons.)

Body language, facial expressions, gestures, and natural physical reactions are others. If someone is biting their nails, they have effectively communicated to me that they are nervous. If someone laughs, they’ve communicated that they are entertained. If someone shrugs, they’re telling me they’re unsure, and if someone blushes, they’ve told me they’re embarrassed or shy.

Music is another method I hadn’t thought too much about before. Digital media especially uses music and sound as a language, to further extend the emotions that are being portrayed on screen. If you’ve ever watched a tornado compilation with Wii music over if, you’ll know that what should be scary (your house and all your belongings flying into the air) becomes quite funny. Even instrumental songs carry meaning, and while I’m no music major, I know exactly what instrumentals to turn on if I want to feel sadder or cheer myself up.

As you can see from the examples above, there are countless forms of non-verbal communication (I’m sure I did not list every single one, and we still have yet to get into internet usage). But now I’m thinking about which ones I didn’t get to.


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