does language play roles of equal importance in different areas of knowledge?

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Hana Fahim TOK essay Q.4 Does language play roles of equal importance in different areas of knowledge?Different dictionaries interpret language in different ways. But primarily language is "a method of human communication, either spoken or written"1 but it does not need to be a vocal form of communication. It is "the system of communication used by a particular community or country"2. And it is also "the manner or style of a piece of writing or speech"3. It also needs to apply to everyday life. This means that any language needs to have "a vocabulary of symbols or words, a grammar consisting of rules of how these symbols may be used, a community of people who use and understand these symbols and a range of meanings that can be communicated with these symbols "4. To most people, language represents what we speak and what we write. But there are other ways of communicating that can be considered a language that people do not fully acknowledge. In this essay, I will explore the importance of language in different areas of knowledge, specifically mathematics, the arts and natural science.In his book 'Mathematics and Creativity' Alfred Adler said "Mathematics is pure language - the language of science. It is unique among languages in its ability to provide precise expression for every thought or concept that can be formulated in its terms."5 Mathematics could actually be seen as a separate language. You can apply it to everyday life. It has many uses, the most obvious would be counting. Also it is used to measure objects, in gambling and it is also used in physics, it is actually an integral part of it. It can describe motion, colour and sound. These are only a few examples of the many functions of mathematics. Math is almost useless if it does not have any practical applications, which is the same for natural language, it is only useful if it can
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be applied to our daily life. Mathematics is an international language, it consists of a group of symbols and numbers which forms its vocabulary. These symbols and numbers are the same all over the word and so mathematics can be understood by anyone who has a basic knowledge of the rules in mathematics, anywhere in the world, no matter what language they speak. Math has a set of rules which have to be followed in order to be able to understand it. These rules form the grammar of mathematics. Also, math is used by mathematicians who form the community of ...

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