10 STAT Questions

Li 1

Should We Let Rare Languages Die?

In this age of globalization, English become the most popular language in the world. Many kinds of language are disappearing. But should we just let them die? Kenan Malik a professor who is a lecturer and broadcaster works in University of Susse. He believes that dying language shouldn’t be preserved and let them die in peace. He writes an essay named ‘Let Them Die’ tries to prove his points but he doesn’t do it well. His essay is not persuasive enough Because of his weakness evidence and his extreme tone.

Malik has much weakness evidence in his essay. For instance, Malik writes this evidence in his essay : “The human capacity for language certainly shapes our ways of thinking….Most linguists have long since given up on the idea that people's perceptions of the world, and the kinds of concepts they hold, is constrained by the particular language they speak” (Malik).He doesn’t use any evidence or academic source to prove this point here. He also doesn’t do any interpreting about this point. He just put his points in his essay without any explanation; it’s really hard to makes reader believe his claims are strong in this way. He points that “The human capacity for language certainly shapes our ways of thinking. But particular languages almost certainly do not.” It’s actually makes no sense. No one can understand why particular languages cannot shape our ways of thinking without any explanation. He also points that “Language campaigners also confuse political oppression and the loss of cultural identity. Some groups—such as Turkish Kurds—are banned from using their language as part of a wider campaign by the Turkish state to deny Kurds their rights. .…a better life.”(Malik) He tries to use evidence from Turkish to prove that most people choose make their own language dies because they want a better life. But it is weakness evidence. “Turkish Kurds” is just a very small group in the world; it can’t representative most rare language speaker. He needs strong evidence like if Japanese give up their language and all speak English. That will be useful to prove his point that people give up their own language just for better life. As a data shows us, Turkish Kurds is a small race; only thousands of people belong to this race. It can be special evidence but it proves nothing. He cannot make his essay convincing me with this kind of evidence.

Even though her evidences are not strong enough, he also has extreme tone in his article. For example, He writes that “The idea that French speakers view the world differently from English speakers, because they speak French, is clearly absurd. It is even more absurd to imagine that all French speakers have a common view of the world, thanks to a common language.” (par.8) It is extreme tone to describe his point. The sentence “is clearly absurd” makes his tone extremely. The word absurd makes his work looks very subjective and less convincing to reader. Generally, a neutral tone is helpful for making an essay more convincing to readers, because neutral tone makes an essay more objective. Obviously, Malik does a terrible job in his essay. However, he is keeping doing this extreme Tone in his essay. He emphasizes “even more absurd” again. Its makes his extreme tone more intense, It’s no help to makes work more convincing but more incredible. Tone is a very important tool to makes writer’s essay more convincing, but Malik doesn’t use it well.

Although Malik writes many evidences in his article, tries to prove that dying language shouldn’t be preserved. People should just let the die. But unfortunately, his evidences are weak. It no helps to makes his essay more convincing. On the other side, his writes not neutral tone in his essay. It’s truly makes his essay more weakness. It can not convincing reader by these kind of tone and evidence.

Work cited

Malik, Kenan. “Let Them Die.” Prospect. Prospect Publishing, 20 Nov. 2000. Web.

21 Jan. 2016.