Language
From Geography
Language represents an abstract ability of a community of speakers (Lippuner & Werlen, 2009). So it is a medium through which people communicate with each other. Regarding Werlen (2009, p. 6), language is used as central medium for action and meaning transfer. Geography is concerned with the study of language as the medium through which intersubjective meaning is communicated, and in the power relations intrinsic to such meaning (Gregory et al., 2009). Language makes it possible for people to have interactions, by acting, understanding and reacting. One person acts, by starting a conversation. For an other person to react on this, he needs to understand the meaning of what was said. So understanding is a very important aspect of language.
The meaning of language within Structuralism
Ferdinand de Saussure discovered that language language was actually a structure. Language is a whole social linguistic system into which an individual is born. A master system of differences between sign that regulates sign production above and beyone linguistics alone (Smith, 2009, p. 30). At the moment that people start to use and practise language it becomes a 'la parole'. This french for speech. It describes the language as a process and how it is being practised by speakers (Smith, 2009).
References
- Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M.J., Whatmore, S. (2009). The Dictionary of Human Geography. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Lippuner, R., Werlen, B. (2009). Structuration Theory. Elsevier Ltd.
- Smith, R.G. (2009), Structuralism/Structuralist Geography. In: International Encyclopedia for Human Geography. Elsevier
- Werlen R. (2009), Everyday regionalisation. In: International Encyclopedia for Human Geography. Elsevier
