Edward Caruana Galizia’s opinion piece (‘Questioning language’, September 6) started off with Stephen Fry’s quip on the power of language.

Communication is a key element in today’s society. Words represent a magical power that only mankind possesses. They can be coupled with other means, like gestures and body movements, to deliver messages and enhance meaning.

Words are powerful tyranny and faithful wizards at the same time. They can call men to war, bring together armies and motivate them to fight for an ideal, persuade people to vote in favour or against a political party, strike or end relationships, achieve or foil commercial negotiations, entice people to buy advertisers’ products, allay fear, alleviate sorrow, instil happiness, enhance mercy, bring dreams to life, as well as realise wishes and prayer and they can wipe away tears from a child’s face and win back a smile.

Nobody doubts that language is a powerful means of dominion and authority. Whoever has these abilities can conquer the world through diction. Language has a very wide range of social power, especially where it concerns collective conscience.

Charismatic leaders make use of diction to govern and havethe ability to transform their words into deeds. Today’ssociety is teeming with allsorts of techniques of ling-uistic manipulation.

Religions have their preachers. Far from the differences in faith, they all harbour special types of personalities who harness great power over the faithful. As consumers, contemporary society members listen bewildered to public discussions, all made up of effective diction.

Industry would not have spent so much had it no guaranteeof making profit through intelligent propaganda.

These are just a few reflections on the power of diction. Words practically are concerned with all aspects of human life and have the ability to change the whole world.

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