CROWTHER JOURNAL OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

The concept of language, as well as meaning, is complex and has been a subject matter for significant attention to philosophers, linguists and anthropologists alike. Among the earliest known views on language expressed in the West are the ones found in the work of Plato and Aristotle in the 4th Century BC. While Plato considers the physical objects as passing representations of eternal ideas, Aristotle views that the relationship between words and objects consist of resemblance and convention. Aristotle states that words represent objects and there is a convention about which word represents which object. The views of other philosophers, on language and meaning, from Augustine in the 4th Century CE, to the mediaeval philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas and Ockham and the 20th Century materialists, revolve round the rationalist view of Plato and the empirical view of Aristotle. Contemporary scholars have shown interests in language and the complexities of grammar in human communication. In order to elicit more understanding of language and meaning, this essay analyses language as a tool of communication. The nature, characteristics and dynamism of language, meaning and translation, are critically examined. It therefore concludes that in spite of the challenges of adequate communication within a culture and across cultures. An individual could find his social identity through the background knowledge of the culture within that society.

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