Language is an abstraction of thought

Expression of thought is what communications is all about. Language is an abstraction of thought. Language can never become communication as a thought can never be expressed completely. And if at all a thought can be expressed completely, the language used for it would be a perfect language, which would be nothing but communication itself. I came to understand the tight coupling between thought, language and communication very recently. It was a sweet coincidence. To do a profile picture for my website's fan-page, I was trying to create an image out of the introduction that I had written for an article titled Improve your vocabulary. The intro was about language and communication. I was amazed by the output I got. Here goes the image and it is followed by the introduction I wrote.

Language is an abstraction of thought. A thought in itself is of no significance in the real world, because it needs the support of language if it has to have some effect or if it needs to be conveyed to others. All these posts, articles, plethora of information available on the internet is an attempt (though an unsuccessful one) to capture and express that thought. Language comes nowhere close to the "Actual communication of the thought from the person who conceived the thought to the person with whom he is trying to communicate". Man from the time immemorial has been trying to invent new words so that he can express his thought more clearly and lucidly, there by trying to communicate more effectively. But he is no where close to reaching the stage of actual communication.

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use and the list still keeps growing. We come out with a list of new words every year only to realise that there is a vacuum in the language for creating many more such lists. It is like space : the more you explore, more you realise that much more is yet to be explored. But one thing is for sure, greater the number of words you know and deeper the understanding of them, better are your chances of communicating an idea or thought successfully. And hence better are your chances of succeeding in your workplace and life.