Death and syntax

Journal/Book: Death Stud. 1998; 22: 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007-1598. Hemisphere Publ Corp. 307-320.

Abstract: A neglected influence on human thinking about death and life after death is the nature of language itself: While all languages; provide labels for death, dying, and the dead, language also reinforces our denial by tending to present the dead as if they still existed. The sentence John is dead names John no differently than when he was alive, and the predication about him is in the present tense. Such anomalies have their roots in the evolution of the cognitive system even before humans spoke their first words, because language is fundamentally an information processor that aids the survival of the organism by classifying and characterising items in the environment. Thus, because language deals with things that exist and deals with all things as if they existed, it has probably served as one source for the universal tendency to cope with death as if the dead still existed. While we cannot change the basic syntax of our simple sentences about the dead, we can consider whether our vocabulary is sufficient for us to be able to name the various aspects of dying that seem important. Brief suggestions are made about components of death and grieving that we do not have the words to express easily.

Note: Article Haussamen B, Raritan Valley Community Coll, North Branch, POB 3300, Somerville,NJ 08876 USA

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