LANGUAGE REFLECTS PERSONALITY

How many languages are there in the world? How about 5 billion! Each of us talks, listens, and thinks in his/her own special language that has been shaped by our culture, experiences, profession, personality, mores and attitudes.

Personality is the sum total of all the traits of an individual. It’s the combination of all traits that makes an individual different from all others. One of the trait is Language. A language is a system for encoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called “natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using language. Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation and usage of systems of symbols—each referring to linguistic concepts with semantic or logical or otherwise expressive meanings.

The ways people use words convey a great deal of information about themselves, their audience, and the situations they are in. Individuals’ choice of words can hint at their social status, age and motives. We sense if the speaker or writer is emotionally close or distant, thoughtful or shallow, and possibly extraverted, neurotic, or open to new experience. Words people use are diagnostic of their mental, social, and even physical state. Example: Common errors in speech betray people’s deeper motives or fears. Language is the bridge to reality. The styles in which people use words rather than the content of what they say reflects the important aspects of their personality. The distinction between linguistic style and linguistic content can be seen in how two people may make a simple request. “Would it be possible for you to pass me the

salt?” and “Pass the salt,” both express the speaker’s desire for salt and direct the listener’s action. However, the two utterances also reveal different features of the interactants’ relationship, the speaker’s personality, and perhaps the way the speaker understands himself.

So, language reflects personality as its one of the important ingredient of the recipe called Personality. Language is the way we express ourselves or in the other words express what we are and how we think.

Language reflects:

AttitudeConfidenceDominant, passive, submissiveBehavioral, toneExtravert, introvertEmotionalHumility, arroganceEducational backgroundIndividualistic self centered teamSincerityMotiveClarityCulture, valueAge, experienceCreativeInformal, formal, decisiveMotivatorConvincingLeadership designPedigreeOrganized