Response: "Language" by Martin Heidegger
According to Martin Heidegger in his essay on language, language "speaks" and comes from itself; it has its own voice. His sense of language is closely tied to his ideas on 'being,' as he feels that we live in the now, and everything is already existing and has existed. The same can be said of language; "we are always speaking, even when we do not utter a single word aloud, but merely listen or read, and even when we are not particularly listening or speaking but are attending to some work or taking a rest" (p. 1118). The most important thing to remember is that it is language that speaks, and not the man; this leaves the burden and ability to communicate out of the hands of man, who instead just follows along and responds to what language has to say.
There is a difference between speaking and language - men can speak 'impurely,' meaning that they are not following along with what language is attempting to convey. Poetry is one of the most important modes of language for Heidegger; "What is spoken purely is the poem. For the moment, we must let this statement stand as a bare assertion" (pp. 1124-25). In poetry, intention and the connection between "what we think and what we are told by language" is demonstrated most clearly, and in this case must be given the utmost consideration.
The concept of dif-ference is very important to Heidegger's understanding of language as well. "The intimacy of world thing is present in the separation of the between; it is present in the dif-ference" (p. 1129). Instead, dif-ference between a world and things involves both of them existing in tandem, and because of each other - "The dif-ference for world and thing disclosingly appropriates things into bearing a world; it disclosingly appropriates world into the granting of things" (p. 1129). This difference ties in closely with Heidegger's idea that we know more about the world than we let on; the world and things in it are speaking to us through language - language itself speaks to us, and we have to respond to it. Language is the master of mankind, as Heidegger believes, and so they are slave to its whims and intentions.
The concept of language for Heidegger is tied closely in with the constant present of being; we are always using language and expressing through it, as both world and things create each other and cause their existence. Language, in essence, comes first in the transaction; "Man speaks in that he responds to language" (p. 1132). The question then becomes what we respond to instead of what we create. Language brings along dif-ference, dividing world and things and creating intimacy in the process. The relationship between man and language then becomes much more complex; man has the choice to not speak what is being told through language, or sometimes finds their mode of communication inadequate. Poetry is conceived as the basest, more pure form of language and expression, as purity comes through the bond of intention and prose.
Works Cited
Heidegger, Martin. "Language," in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Print.
