Nothing of Language is Original

Imagine, the invention of the bicycle. The bicycle could not have been invented without the invention of the wheel. The invention of the wheel too was facilitated by the invention of something before it, and so on. The point is, one thing is completely dependent of the other. Each invention is linked to another and cannot exist without the other. No one idea, or invention in this case, is original. Each is bound by a theory that came before it, and whatever comes after it, will be bound by that same theory or idea. Similarly, no aspect of language is original. 

Derrida explains, "All elements of language have identity in so much as they are produced by a network of differences, and each element will itself consist of further differentiations, endlessly" (278). Each element gains identity only in the network that has been created by differentiations; differentiations that connect each element to another, infinitely. For instance, the word "produce." That word is linked to different aspects of the English language. It may mean to manufacture something, or is a term used in agriculture to refer to the food items. Either way, that one word is linked to many other words in different ways. Even that one word that is used in a agricultural setting may be used in science or marketing setting. One word is not limited to a certain context. 

A word may be used in context among a certain group of people. It may be connected to other words that are used in that field. For example, the word "produce," is linked to "manufacture," which can then be link to "fabricate," which can then take us to a different setting, and different context. Consider also, that each word could not have been conceptualized without the other. Or rather, the idea of one word could not have been conceptualized without bearing the thought of another word that may be linked to it. Derrida also shares, "All ideas and all objects of thought and perception bear the trace of other things" (278). Though not all words are linked to another by letters or by the utterance of the word, they are linked by ideas, perceptions and experiences. The idea of a word could not have surfaced, if you were thinking about something else that may be linked to it. For instance, I may think of "stadium," and immediately think of "football," and then think of "athletes" and so on. This reminds me of Burke's theory of identification where he posits that every idea is linked to another. Every idea can be traced to another, one that precedes it.

Bakhtin also believes that nothing of language is original. "All words and forms are populated by intentions," of the speaker/writer. Each language is therefore populated by different social, cultural, political and professional intentions (Bakhtin 293). These intentions change over time but the language remains the same, and this is how every language stays connected, through the history that each element of language bears. Every unit of language brings with it a cultural, historical and social background. One connected to the other in different contexts. Imagine, your family tree. You are related to someone who lived 2 centuries ago. You bear the same last name perhaps, or just some special trait of that one person. That relative too, was related to someone a millennium older than he/she was. It is just the network. Similarly, the every unit of language is related in some way or the other.


-Kelli 

Sources: Bakhtin, Mikhail M. “Discourse in the Novel.” The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: U of Texas P, 1981. 259-331, excerpted. 

Derrida, Jacques. “Différance.” Literary Theory: An Anthology, Second Edition. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, MA: Wiley/Blackwell, 2004. 278-288.