This week’s readings was very difficult for me. I know Professor Matt warned us about the difficulty level being a bit high for this weeks readings, but I actually thought I would be able to handle it. I was wrong! Even though this reading was difficult for me, I feel that I did learn somethings from the text.

Language is human communication using words or symbols in a structured way. Communication is the sending or receiving of information. Both language and communication are very diverse concepts. However, communication can be limited if there is a language barrier. I think that communication isn’t easy if there is a difference in language. Someone that speaks French might not be able to fully understand what someone that speaks English is communicating. As stated in the text “Course of General Linguistics” by Ferdinand Be Saussure “The linguistic sign is arbitrary”. Language is conventional and arbitrary, words and symbols only have meaning as part of a structure or system.

Language has always used symbols and words to help communicate information. For instance cave drawings. Cave drawings are drawings of people, animals or even handprints that communicated messages and told stories to others that may visited the cave. Or the cuneiform which is one of the first ancient writing systems used in ancient civilizations. Language and the use of symbols have evolved together. Today we use things like emojis to communicate an emotion through technology. Designers have created legendary logos using symbols that communicate a message to the consumer. Without language design would be very limited and would lack the idea of universality. Just like design is apart of everything so is language. I think that without language and its diversity, designers wouldn’t be able to successfully create designs that are used all over the world.