Language is the most important human medium. Language was the quantum leap in the evolution of Homo Sapiens. But it is also a very complex system that is constantly changing, because otherwise we would still speak Middle High German today, for example. The decline of common language is currently proclaimed through the use of emojis and anglicisms in social media. However, linguistic diversity is hardly taken into account.
Another phenomenon of societal and political shifts in language is perhaps most evident in current debates about gender and inclusive language. Does language change consciousness and therefore society? Is the precise use of language still relevant today? “Are the limits of my language still the limits of my world? », as postulated by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in the Tractatus? Will artificial intelligence transform human language beyond all previous boundaries into infinity?
Franz Schuh, Writer and essayist and Elisabeth Nemeth, Institute of Philosophy of the University of Vienna, with Walter Hämmerle, editor of the “Wiener Zeitung”.
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