What is English?

As an English major, one of the most frequent questions you will hear is, “What do you plan on doing with that degree?” Despite its simple title, the English field of study is quite vague to those unfamiliar with it. Most people assume that to study the English language is just a matter of reading and writing, and it is, but people wrongly assume that’s all English majors and minors end up doing post-graduation.

According to the Keene State website, English “encourages students to develop sophisticated ways of understanding, creating, and responding to texts…[to] study the historical development of literary and rhetorical traditions, of literatures written in English, as well as world and European literatures in English translation” (1).

As for what the English major does with all those hours of meticulous study, the choices are really quite broad. One can be a literary critic, a teacher, a writer, a linguist, or anything else he or she sets their mind to.

The real question, however, is not what the English major will do after college, but rather ‘why the hell would I want to be an English major?”

English is not often a glamorous or wealthy field, unless if you manage to write this century’s masterpiece. And even then, there’s a fair chance you might not get discovered until post-mortem. It’s a life of hardship and obscurity, borderline poverty, and tireless labor.

Never the less, knowing the game of language is the key to a progressive society. As George Carlin once said, you control thought through language (Carlin 1). If you know any language well enough, you can shape the minds of countless strangers. You can inspire, persuade, and otherwise push the masses to reach higher.

For example, let us suppose that someone chooses to be an English teacher. Whether that person works in grammar school or Oxford University, he or she is responsible for the education of whole generations of students, and by extent, the future of the community.

Most people are not self-taught, either because they do not see the point in learning or because they simply don’t know what to study. Without educators there to teach people to read, to think critically and express themselves clearly, the world steadily falls apart. People slide into ignorance and thus provide other, more sinister minded folks the opportunity to take advantage. All it takes for a nation to crumble is a crooked politician; all it takes for the crook to take over is an uninformed population, and all it takes for ignorance to breed is one less good teacher.

Suppose that the English major does not want to be a teacher, or rather, he or she wants to teach but is unable to because they are better thinkers than speakers. Here, the literary critic is born. The critic’s task is simple, though tedious.

They read and then they write about what they read, dissecting the book to find out whether it’s worth the price tag and, if so, why. It’s tedious because they read an ungodly amount of books, and whether they’re good or bad the pages inevitably blur together.

People wonder why we need critics if taste is relative. True, any review is based in personal opinion, but imagine that it’s your job to read and report until you feel sick, until most pieces become mediocre at best because you think you’ve seen it all. If anything shakes these jaded readers awake, then they must have stumbled across gold.

The literary critic’s task is simple, though underappreciated. They read and then write about they read, and when they find something worth reading, they try their hardest to convince other people to share the wonder. Society may not need critics to decide what is and isn’t good, but they do need critics to help point readers in the right direction.

As for novelists and poets, the question of “why study English?” turns into a question of “Does my contribution really mean anything?” Not just on a cultural level, but on a broader, humanitarian level? Studying and advancing the English language is important, but few people would think that writing a novel is as important as studying medicine or physics.

But as the avid reader can attest, a story is never just a story. It’s doubly so for a poem. When you write a story or a poem, whether the goal is to teach or entertain, either way you walk in the shadows of philosophers. If the work in question is a classic or not doesn’t matter, for every story tries, in some small way at least, to explore what it means to be human. To pierce the heart of things, so to speak.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is regarded as one of the classic tragedies of the English language, weaving a complex tale of revenge and morality. Meanwhile, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, while no classic by elitist standards, is still a culturally significant work of fiction. All it does is tell a simple and enchanting story of a boy wizard fighting against the forces of darkness. The moral of the story? Love and friendship conquer all. It may not be the most profound statement, but it is surely one worth passing on to a generation of young readers.

In many ways, to be an author is to be a mentor. You inform with your words and inspire your readers to think and feel in a certain way. If you are good enough, you may even encourage people to do more with themselves. To go on reading, to look at things in a new light; to think and adapt, and hopefully, make this world a better place.

For a real world example, take a look at Henry David Thoreau. Author of Walden and Civil Disobedience, he was virtually unknown in his lifetime, but he has since influenced the entire course of human history. He inspired Gandhi to resist the British and later Martin Luther King Jr. to lead the civil rights movement, thus Thoreau’s work was indirectly responsible for two world-changing revolutions.

Furthermore, as a book worm one quickly finds that the right author can be your best friend. A true friend will make you think and feel outside yourself in such a way that you are a better person for simply having known them. A book can do all these things too, and sometimes more.

I personally cannot tell you how many times I felt like crying when I found out that some of my favorite writers had died long before I cracked open their books. I am the sort of loser who laughed almost teary eyed at Slaughterhouse-Five and who felt his heart pound at the final battle in For Whom the Bell Tolls, wishing that I could have fought at the protagonist’s side – wishing I could have saved him in the end.

In the same way, I’ll laugh with the utmost sympathy at my friend’s sad, though grimly hilarious tales; in the same way, Ill jump into any brawl with my friends, heart pumping and hair standing up, terrified but ready to fight.

If the writer writes with any truth or heart in his work, then words have the power to reach total strangers and change their whole perspective on life. For those willing to read, the author can inspire ordinary men to fight for their freedom. Sometimes, all an author is good for is to bring a little feeling into a reader’s life. Even if that is the only thing accomplished, the author has done his part to improve the world.

Yet studying English is not just about learning how to write. Nor is it merely poring over endless texts, trying to decipher what the masses of writers from past to present were trying to say. If one chooses to be a linguist with a focus in English, then he or she may find themselves further advancing the English speaking culture.

But first, what is a linguist? According to the Linguistic Society of America’s website, “Linguistics is the scientific study of language… of the structure of language in general and of particular languages, knowledge about how languages vary, and how language influences the way in which we interact with each other and think about the world” (Macaulay, Syrett 1).

In other words, the goal of the linguist is to study how the rules of language form and change over time, and how language itself influences perception. Since linguistics is more concerned with the scientific aspects of a language, rather than the artistic, some may wonder how such a path contributes to one’s culture.

Think of language as a constantly evolving game. Things like syntax, intonation, phonetics, morphology and etc. are impermanent and mysterious rules. People live their whole life by the conventions of their respective tongue, most without even consciously knowing why.

A full understanding of language is necessary for a person’s well-being. If one knows the rules of the game, then he or she is free to make their own in respects to the older guidelines. With linguistic knowledge comes the freedom and technical ability to do almost anything, quite frankly.

One can get a job as a teacher, a journalist, a scientist, an advertising agent or government employee. Linguistics even help actors prepare for a role by teaching them how to intone and pronounce certain words in a dialect (Macaulay, Syrett 1).

If one knows how language works, how certain rules hold true while others give way to new conventions, then it stands to reason that the study of a language – such as English – may help to develop it. Any contribution to one’s language may only aid one’s community to prosper.

But not everyone is an English major, and the study of language is not the only thing that holds society together. Other things are just as important, if not more. Things like law, medicine, philosophy, science – these disciplines all play a crucial role in a community. However, aside from their importance, each discipline shares a common thread in language study.

To be a lawyer or a doctor, a philosopher or a scientist requires a person to be well-read, of course. It requires the ability to think critically and to communicate clearly.

If one becomes a lawyer, one needs a tight grasp of their language – in this case, English – to understand the law. One also needs to be in the habit of analyzing a situation. Imagine having a defense attorney who didn’t know how to read Legalese, or how to think on his or her feet.

Similarly, medicine needs careful readers. For a doctor, the process of diagnosis is a matter of observation and investigation, where the doctor draws on everything he studied in various medical textbooks and journals. Doctors and other medical professionals can only help their patients if they are well-read enough to know how to recognize the patients’ symptoms.

Philosophy and science rely almost entirely on close reading and a firm grasp of language. First and foremost, because otherwise you are going to lose yourself in the terminology and complex wording; and secondly because like writing, every advance in science and philosophy is built on the previous work of others.

John Locke developed his beliefs with inspiration from Thomas Hobbes, Albert A. Michelson inspired Einstein (Bowman 1), Hunter S. Thompson was inspired by Ernest Hemingway (Jordison, 1), and the list goes on. Every writer, thinker, and scientist mines their ideas from past texts and past mistakes.

The philosopher observes the flaws in the arguments of those he studied and seeks to correct them. And then the philosopher writes a thesis to explain and proving his idea, working out the details through each draft of his essay until it’s perfect. The scientist does the same, testing an older notion with a fresh twist until the idea is proved or disproved.

Meanwhile, the writer reads his predecessors and learns the basics of structure and plot and such. After becoming familiar with the styles of great and bad authors alike, the writer writes his own piece, borrowing from others and revising his work until it brings the desired effect.

What is English and why do we need to study it? The pillars of society are held up by the ability to read and think and write well. The skills of a lawyer, a doctor, philosopher, and a scientist are almost identical to the skills a linguist, a writer, or most any English students. The critic steers the people to the right authors, the author inspires the people to think and feel more maturely. The linguist studies and improves the fundamentals of our language, and the English teacher teaches students how knowing a language can improve your lot in life.

Sources:

 1) George Carlin. “George Carlin About Rape.” https://youtu.be/fwMukKqx-Os?t=247. Accessed May 26^th, 2015.

2) https://www.keene.edu/catalog/programs/detail/296/ba/english/. Accessed May 26^th, 2015

3) Monica Macaulay and Kristen Syrett. “Why Major In Linguistics?” http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/why-major-linguistics. Accessed May 26^th, 2015

4) Tom Bowman. “The man who inspired Einstein.” Last edited February 8^th, 1995. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-02-08/news/1995039094_1_michelson-measuring-the-speed-luminiferous-ether. Accessed May 26^th, 2015

5) Sam Jordison. “Following Hemingway to the grave.” Last edited July 10^th, 2007. http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/jul/10/followinghemingwaytothegra. Accessed May 26^th, 2015