what cannot be expressed by language? why?

Answer 1

If you really think about it, NOTHING can be expressed by language.

I'm reminded of a classic philosophical argument. Suppose a person had been raised their entire lives in a room that contained no green. That person was familiar with the concept of green, understood the physics behind it, and read descriptions of green from other people. But they had never ever ACTUALLY seen green. Do you think that person has as good an experience of green as someone who has actually seen it?

And if not green, what about everything else? Many think there is a certain ineffable quality to pretty much everything real that can only be experienced, not described.

Even if there is no such ineffable quality, think about words themselves... each one usually has a half a dozen different meanings and implications, and each user has a tendancy to put them together differently. It wouldn't be to inaccurate to say that the content-meaning behind each word is a sum generated over a person's entire lifetime, with all their experience rolled up inside that small package. Some people like to be called 'baby', and some find it to be an insult. Almost all words are slanted like this. Which would mean that even if it were possible to understand what someone else was really and completely saying, you would have to understand everything there was to know about that person.

Consider also the imprecision with which most people use language. As exhibit A, I would like to suggest the synonym. Whole dictionaries are filled with words that supposedly mean the same thing but in fact all have different meanings. Logy, tired, listless, fatigued, and lethargic all have drastically different implications, and someone who pretends they don't (most people) aren't even TRYING to convey much actual meaning in their language!

Obviously some ideas are communicated, more or less. But I think this has a lot more to do with commonality of experience and deductive reasoning than with the quality of language used. Experiences tend to have qualities which evade description altogether, people attach new personal meanings to existing words, and even then they often aren't even interested in much precision in communication.

Yet... maybe this isn't entirely a bad thing. But that is the topic of another discussion...

Answer 2

Whatever is beyond the comprehension of the five senses. Since the entire human experience has been codified in language, in general anything can be expressed in one language or the other. However, things which are beyond our comprehension cannot be so expressed, because those are outside the limits of human experience.
However, if you take one language at a time, whatever is outside the characteristics of the people who created it is also beyond the scope of expression of the language. E.g. in my language Bengali, there is a term 'Abhimaan', which has no exact counterpart in the English language. I feel this is so because we feel the emotion 'Abhimaan' but it is not generally experienced by the British / other English-speaking nations.

Answer 3

Tao.. (The Way [of the Universe])
The way (Tao) that can be expressed in words .. is not the way itself.

The soul cannot be expressed in words ..

The mind cannot be expressed in words..

Nirvana - or pure bliss (absense of suffering) .. cannot be expressed in words..

These are very complex concepts - these are not things that you can touch or feel or point at.. words cannot correctly describe things that cannot be seen, touched, or felt.. because words have limitations when it reaches the realm of complex concepts.

When the words cannot express it, only by experiencing it will you understand the truth of it.

Answer 4

Oh, expensive.. If I have been given a penny everytime I heard somebody desires to stay in usa of america i might have offered a house there for them already! yet living in Greece... a variety of of human beings from international think of of Greece as an incredible place to spend their trip. And in the event that they decide to furnish their loose time to Greece then living there might desire to not be worse! i know there's a disaster there yet there is one in Turkey and Bulgaria and and and... maybve quickly in Amurica. we gained't all circulate to the freakin' moon aye? purely have confidence on your aims, circulate with the flow and you will gain all you like anyplace you're notwithstanding in case you progression in some 'shitty' united states (notwithstanding each and every thing is subjective, you cant say something is all shitty or all sturdy). And now for the psychological ingredient i think of you talk English to precise your emotions bc of your shame of your united states and additionally bc that's like a code. not a variety of of human beings if any decide to communicate approximately their real emotions and utilising yet another language of human beings who stay a techniques faraway from you is like... in all probability projecting your feeling, putting it a techniques away in that place the place they talk english/american to that end. i'm no psychologist yet i'm fairly beneficial that's that because of the fact I purely experience an analogous way. :)

Answer 5

feelings, dreams can't be expressed by language. not enough words to express them.

Answer 6

To completely convey how bliss feels..

we can only try. Some other languages have better words for subtlety.

Answer 7

Try explaining to someone what "time" is without using references to clocks, time etc.

That is a good one.

Answer 8

What a wet dog smells like...there are no known words for that!

Answer 9

Love. Talk won't cut it. At some point you have to do something, or it's not really love, is it?

Answer 10

love, there is no real definition of love, how do you describe that? something that you can feel so strongly that words are not enough...sigh