The Limitations of Language

This book explores the relation between language and our senses and emotions, taking readers into domains as diverse as wine-tasting, marriage guidance counselling, medical training and face recognition. The authors suggest that language is capable of both confusing and clarifying. An exploration of the relation between language and our senses and emotions, taking readers into domains as diverse as wine-tasting, marriage guidance counselling, medical training and face recognition. The authors argue that language is a double-edged weapon, equally capable of clarifying and confusing. At best it provides no more than a fragile bridge between us, sustained by illusions we all share. Through language we can reconstruct experiences in a way far-removed from what we actually lived, feign understanding, hide what we actually feel, or talk with confidence about what we ill-understand.