One of the selections given to us in our English class is the essay by James E. Miller, Jr. entitled I Speak; Therefore I Am. This selection, I believe, has had quite an impact on me.


We were tasked to explain what each paragraph means, to try to dig deeper into what the author wants to say and in the process, discover what language really is.


Here are a few of the paragraphs from the selection and their explanations.


“I speak; therefore I am.”
---I speak, therefore I become.


Though this deceleration may seem a little strange at the first, it can be supported by considerable evidence. The individual establishment his individuality, his distinction as a human being, through language. He becomes - through language. Not only does he proclaim his existence, his being through speech, but also his identity - the special and particular nature that makes him him. The declaration may be written: I speak; thus I am."


What sets human beings apart from animals is their capacity to speak, to communicate through words instead of grunts and growls. A person’s identity is established by the language he/she speaks. When in other countries, Filipinos know when another person is a “kababayan” because they both speak Filipino. We know when a person is Chinese or Korean because they speak the language of their countries.


The creation of the self must by its very nature, be a cooperative affair. The potential for language acquisition and language-use to be granted as a birthright. But the accident of the birth will determine whether the language acquired will be Chinese, Swahili, Spanish or English. And the same accident will determine the presence of the people and a culture that together bring the language to the individual.


The language we speak is influenced by our environment and by our birth. As children, we acquire the same language/dialect and speech patterns of the people around us. We speak Tagalog because we were born in a Tagalog-speaking environment. English-speaking people speak English because they were born in an English-speaking environment. Some people adopt the language of the area they move to when they grow older. For example, a Filipino child moves with her family to Spain. In the time of her stay there, she learns to speak in Spanish as well because of her surroundings.


If, then the individual creates himself through language, it is only with the help provided by a sympathetic environment; a mother who encourages him to babble, to distinguish sounds and consequences; and then to utter sentences; and a host of other people who act and react "linguistically personality,'' a set of language behavior patterns that make up a substantial part of his identity as a person different from other person.


The language of an individual is developed with the help of the people around him. His family, friends. They are all essential in the person’s language development. If a person uses curse words in his speech, it is usually because he heard it from someone close to him or because his friends use the same words.

For writing is discovery. The language that never leaves our head is like a colorful yarn, endlessly spun out multicolored threads dropping into a void momentary compacted, entangled fascinating elusive. We have glimpses that seem brilliant but quickly fade; we catch sight of images that tease us with connections and patterns that too-soon flow on; we momentary view of comprehensive arrangement that dissolves rapidly and disappears.

Writing is discovery. We discover new things while we write. The thoughts that we keep in our heads come out through the pens with which we write and in the process, we find new realizations, new ideas.