Language encompasses the social life. It is the primary vehicle used for communication of knowledge, and the primary medium to get a glimpse of the other person’s thought process. Therefore, the importance of language as an imperative element of study in social psychology is irrefutable.
For this reason, one must understand that language has an irrevocable influence on attitude, perception, identity, and social interaction. Language in a way stands on both side of the rope, in other words, it is a stimulus that changes and alters behavior and a response or outcome to the alteration in behavior.
In this paper, we will discuss the way language can affect attitude. It must be made clear, that attitude too affects language, but the main aim of this essay is to understand the influence language has on the attitude.
Attitude holds a central position in linguistics as it demonstrates a common usage notion, terminology, being an explanatory variable. Hence, there arises an overlap in the terminology and definition of attitude in social psychology literature.
Attitude being an important concept of social behavior allows one to identify common and changing beliefs, preferences, and indicates the present thought of the society. In order to understand the influence of language on attitude, we must understand the meaning of attitude.
Attitude may be defined a manner in which one expresses one’s disposition, position, and the manner regarding something. From a psychological point of view, one can also state that attitude demonstrates the mental state of an individual.
Therefore, attitude by definition assumes a concrete position in the social behavioral set of individuals and command of its facets.
Language is an integral part of communication process. Language encompasses the social life that comprises the intrinsic parts of the language used. This essay demonstrates the influence language has on attitude of individuals.
Therefore, language has command over situation perception, belief, and identity of individuals speaking the language. Language is nothing but a set of conceptual doctrines that defines the relation between the sounds of spoken words and the meaning outcome.
Language is a system of complex and organized set of sounds that are organized to affect the perception of the listener.
Language may also entail actions that are shown in order to communicate a certain idea with possible verbal meaning. Language therefore, is a means of communicating various ideas through processed words, gestures, or actions.
Communication through language always aims to communicate an idea, a message. This message or idea may be used to deliver a notion, discourse, knowledge, belief, etc. These, therefore, would certainly have an effect on the attitude of the listener.
Aristotle once said that the aptness of the language of the story one tells would influence the credibility the listeners would hold of the tale. Therefore, language has an immense persuasive power over the listener. One, therefore, would not be mistaken, if it is assumed that language may affect the language outcome.
It is believed that the powerfulness or forcefulness of the language would affect the credibility of the speaker, and therefore, affect the attitude of the listener towards the speaker. In a way, language affects the perception of the listener greatly.
The effect of language on listener’s attitude arises from linguistic variations, cultural perceptions of the credibility of the speaker, and the fluency of the speech. It is believed that when communications are given out slowly they are perceived to be less credible by the listeners.
Further usage of inappropriate, crude language, reduces credibility of the speaker to a great extent and negatively affect the listener’s attitude. Therefore, the influence of language on attitude is immense and encompasses the perception of the listener to the speaker.