In communication, language plays a vital role. One cannot be able to make sense in an argument, or understand the meaning of an argument, if the language used does not make sense (Cline, 2012). The way we use language while communicating can cause or prevent an action.
Last summer, my friends and I were hanging out on a beach one hot afternoon. We were having fun playing volleyball just next to the waters. Everybody was excited since it was the first time for us to hang out together during that summer holiday. We were yelling with excitement and making fun of each whenever one would hit the ball to the wrong direction. As we continued playing, one of my friends hit the ball and since it was getting a bit windy, the ball went into the water. We all laughed at him and persuaded him to go after the ball. The removed his shirt, yelled with excitement and got into the water. The water was not very calm during that time, thus making swimming quite difficult. The water currents were moving the ball quite fast and my friend tried to swim faster in order to catch the ball.
We kept yelling as we persuaded him to swim faster. After a while, he started yelling as well and we thought he was doing it out of excitement, little did we know that he was getting tired and he was unable to keep up with the speed of the water. The more he yelled, the more we yelled back at him. All over sudden, he stopped yelling and he submerged in the water. This is when we realized he was in trouble. We called for help from the beach guards, and he was rescued.
After administering first aid to him, he told as that when he was yelling, he calling out for help. For us, we thought he was having fun and we did not pay attention. This situation is an illustration of how language can cause an action to occur. Our friend almost drowned due to the meaning we had attached to the language we were using. While we were playing, yelling meant excitement. However, we forgot that yelling had different meaning in different situation.