When I was a freshman at Hope College we all had to take a course called An Introduction to Liberal Education. The teacher, D. Ivan Dijkstra, summarized it something like this: the course is about "what people mean by what they say when they talk about what they do." He had readings on the philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, philosophy of social science, philosophy of ethics, philosophy of art, and other "philosophies of." I am now at retirement age, and at many points in my career as an academic clinical psychologist I used his textbook to look up major sources in a particular field of philosophy. In any field, there is a "universe of discourse," the specialized language necessary for practice in the field and a discussion of the field. One of my recent college age clients objected strenuously to the fact that he had to learn a whole new vocabulary in order to pass a course in accounting---he thought being good at math should be enough---and he didn't grasp, until I argued the case, that accountants had to develop a special language to describe their particular way of arranging numbers, which is very different from that of a statistician or a theoretical physicist. Philosophers of language talk about language as "terministic screens" [the specific term is from Kenneth Burke] through which we see the world. One might say something is not "real" until or unless we have a word for it. In clinical psychology and developmental psychology there is the notion of "the unthought known" [the phrase was introduced by Christopher Bollas]---that realm of experience which is not yet in the realm of language and thought. So, what is the point? It is necessary for you to understand the purpose and function of language in order to learn the limitations and strengths and peculiarities of a particular language. There are occasions when I find it necessary to draw on my native language of Dutch to describe an experience for which English has no words, and there are numerous examples of that. Symbolic interactionists talk about language as "symbolic action"---which has to do with the fact that language permits imagination and "rehearsal." Philosophy of language opens up the entire world in a new way. Go for it!

I cannot agree more with Hendrika!

Thanks for your reply. These days I have been trying to think about language in a philosophical way. Truly, a new word is unfolding before me with the adoption a new perspective. I have come to reconsider the functions, strengths and limitations of (a particular) language in its interaction with the physical, mental and social worlds. I enjoy the rethinking.