And, finally, I find the notion of an emergent, predominantly Western, world culture to be erroneous and ethnocentric. I think there are better terms for language ranging from the sublime to the mundane. Some feel the highest form of language is literature. While it is trendy to decry literature as elitist and out of touch, much of it remains liberating and vital. It is something we use to offer and receive solace in our moments of grief.
Language is humanity's way of reaching out.
Language is used to help the user get what the user wants, but this seems true only in the most banal and limited sense. Viewed more generously, language is a means of expressing the inarticulate speech of the heart. In the end, perhaps one's view of language is simply a Rorschach test revealing more about the observer than the observed. When a method of analysis is put forward, one should look for cases in which it has been used. While we cannot tell the future solely by past performance, we can gain useful insights.