The prison-house of language.
I'll be frank, even after all the research I've done, I still don't understand what this means. I mean, I have an idea of it's concept, but ask me to explicitly give you the terms proper definition and I would not be able to. So let me tell you what I think it means, and I go by the words itself. We are often held prisoner by the words we speak. All over the TV, and through out or lives, we are told to watch our mouths. We're told to be mindful of our tones for fear of people taking it the wrong way.
Comedians are often ostracized for their use of language. Lenny Bruce was arrested fifty years ago because of his words. Don Imus was fired because he called a bunch of basketball players, "Nappy headed hoes" in jest. Never mind that it was a terrible joke, he was vilified because of who he was (an old white guy) and because of what he said. Even I had this happen to me recently.
I claim stereotypes often come from the smallest grain of truth and immediately I was jumped on by one person who was offended by my tone. They may have claimed it was because they thought I was wrong, but they eventually made it clear they were more angry because of the language I used; because of my tone. This happens all the time to all of us. We constantly have to watch what we say and how we say it; and it's even doubly worse when you're in the public spotlight. No longer can you just speak, no longer are offhand remarks considered exactly that. They're poured over and analyzed to the point of ridiculousness.
This, in a way, makes us a prisoner. Especially of our own language, unable to speak our minds without fear of excommunication or "hurt feelings". This is what I believe the entire concept of "the prison-house of language" entails.
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