Understanding language and communication.

• Main Author: Tan, Roslin Yi Ting.
• Other Authors: Jeremy Fernando
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44523
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Language is a fictional concept that does not mean anything on its own. In fact, the various meanings that are found in language are created by individuals, who do so to convey their meanings to others through the use of language. As a result, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact meanings of all the words or representations that are used in the process of communication, particularly since the meanings are not inherent in language itself but lies within individuals. However, in order to be able for communication to be even possible in the first place, there is still a need for at least some representations that can be used for other debates. An example of such representations is grammar, in which individuals need not debate about the meanings of grammar in order to debate about other issues such as fiction and reality. Through the analysis of how individuals use language as a means to communicate with each other, this paper thus aims to examine, as well as deconstruct the binary relationship between fiction and reality. In many ways, it attempts to demonstrate how the distinction between fiction and reality is fundamentally problematic due to the ambiguous nature of language. More specifically, it examines how language itself is essentially no more than a representation, which is also used to represent all the other things that we can find in the world. In essence, as Jacques Derrida once points out in Of Grammatology, there is 'nothing outside of the text’(158).