What do you understand by Language?
A language is a method of communication. Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of languages.
- It is a mode of communication.
- It is an expression of feelings, ideas and thoughts into words.
- It is a means of achieving an end to one’s want through the expression of words, or putting thoughts and ideas into action.
- One of the most basic human urge is to communicate.
- Language is a systematic means of communication by the use of words, conventional signs and symbols.
The Communication Model
- Encoding – Transmission – Reception – Decoding
What is Etymology?
The Etymology of a word refers to its origin and the historical roots of the term as a linguistic form. Etymology, in general, is the theory and study of the origins and history of linguistic form. A dictionary etymology tells us what is known of an English word before it became the word entered in that dictionary. If the word was created in English, the etymology shows, to whatever extent is not already obvious from the shape of the word, what materials were used to form it. If the word was borrowed into English, the etymology traces the borrowing process backward from the point at which the word entered English to the earliest records of the ancestral language. Where it is relevant, an etymology notes words from other languages that are related (‘akin’) to the word in the dictionary entry, but that are not in direct line of borrowing.
Where do new words come from? How do you figure out their histories?
Borrowing: A majority of the words used in English today are of foreign origin. English still derives much of its vocabulary from Latin and Greek, but we have also borrowed words from nearly all of the languages in Europe. In the modern period of linguistic acquisitiveness, English has found vocabulary opportunities ever farther afield. From the period of the renaissance voyages through the days when the sun never set upon the British Empire, the language to match the new objects and experiences, English speakers have encountered all over the globe. Over one hundred and twenty languages are on record as sources of present-day English vocabulary.
Shortening or Clipping: Clipping (or truncation) is a process whereby an appreciable chunk of an existing word is omitted; leaving what is called a stump word. When it is the end of a word that is looped off, the process is called back-clipping: thus examination was docked to create exam and gymnasium was shortened to form gym. Less common in English are fore-clipping, in which the beginning of a word is dropped: thus phone from telephone. Very occasionally, we see a sort of fore-and-aft clipping, such as flu from influenza.
Back-Formation: Back-formation occurs when a real or supposed affix (i.e. a prefix or suffix) is removed from a word to create a new one. For example, the original name for a type of fruit was Cherise, but some thought that word sounded plural, so they began to use what they believed to be a singular form, Cherry, and a new word was born. The creation of the verb enthuse from the noun enthusiasm is also an example of back-formation.
Blends: A blend is a word made by combining other words or parts of words in such a way that they over-lap or one is infixed into the other. The term blend is also sometimes used to describe words like brunch, from breakfast plus lunch, in which pieces of the word are joined but there is no actual overlap.
Transfer of personal or place names: Over time, names of people, places, or things may become generalized vocabulary words. Thus did Forsythia develop from the name of botanist William Forsyth, Silhouette from the name of Etienne de’ Silhouette, a parsimonious French Controller General of Finances, and Denim from Serge de’ Nimes (a fabric made in Nimes, France)
Imitation of sounds: Words can also be created by Onomatopoeia (a figure of speech), the naming of things by a more or less exact reproduction of the sound associated with it. Words such as buzz, hiss, guffaw, whiz, and pop are of imitative origin, meaning these words have come into existence after the sounds that they have produced.
- Learning cannot account for the rapid rate at which children acquire language.
- There can be an infinite number of sentences in a language. All these sentences cannot be learned by imitation.
- Children make errors, such as overregularizing verbs. For example, a child may say Billy hitted me, incorrectly adding the usual past tense suffix -ed to hit. Errors like these can’t result from imitation, since adults generally use correct verb forms.
- Children acquire language skills even though adults do not consistently correct their syntax.
- The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children, even though different children experience very different environments.
- Children’s language development follows a similar pattern across cultures.
- Children generally acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly.
- Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their own language. These new languages resemble each other in sentence structure, even when they are created in different cultures.
A language is a method of communication. Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of languages.
Language learning is normal in human childhood. Most human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with others. There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to share certain properties, even though every shared property has exceptions.
There is no defined line between a language and a dialect, but it is often said that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy, a statement credited to Max Weinreich.
Humans and computer programs have also constructed other languages, including constructed languages such as Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, Klingon, programming languages, and various mathematical formalisms. These languages are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by human
Purposes of Language
I - For Inter-Personal Communication:
- Comprehending and internalizing or conveying personal experience.
- Expressing judgements.
- Constructing, following or expressing reasoned argument.
- Defending and challenging ideas, attitudes, feelings and options.
II – For Learning
- Gaining tolerance through experiencing a wide range of new and different viewpoints.
- Transforming abstract concept into concrete reality.
- Speculating about possibilities.
- Trying ideas on for size and thinking them through.
- Revising and reshaping personal ideas and attitudes based on the responses of other persons.
- Devising and asking questions of the other person.
- Initiating activities about personal work and the work of others.
III – For Entertainment:
- Enjoying the sound and beauty of language.
- Understanding the power of the spoken word.
- Stimulating the imagination.
Features of Language
Duality patterning:
Human language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously: at the level of individual sounds like n, b, t, p, i…but none of these individual, discrete sounds has any meaning in themselves. Their meaning comes from meaningful combinations to produce words.
Displacement:
Human language can be used to refer to any dimension of space and time. We can use language to refer to the past, the present and the future. It can also be used to refer to any place here or elsewhere. In neither case does the language user have to move from his or her place to refer to time and place
(OR)
In contrast to other animals, humans have a sense of the past and the future. A gorilla, for example, cannot tell his fellows about his parents, his adventures in the jungle, or his experience of the past. The use of language to talk about things other than "the here and now” is a characteristic of humans. Displacement is thus our ability to convey a meaning that transcends the immediately perceptible sphere of space and time
Open-endedness:
The sounds, words and sentences in a language may be finite or limited, but the combinations and constructions are infinite or unlimited. This creative or productive potential of language enables its user to manipulate and make an infinite variety of constructions to express himself or herself
(OR)
The ability to say things that have never been said before, including the possibility to express invented things or lies, is also a peculiar feature of human language
Arbitrariness:
Human language is an arbitrary (illogical) phenomenon. There is no natural connection or relationship between a word and its meaning. The signifier and the signified are brought together arbitrarily.
Why a table is called "table"? Obviously, the thing never told us its name. And tables do not produce a sound similar to the word. The same applies to most of the words of our language. Hence, words and their meanings have no a priori connection. We cannot tell from the sound structure which meaning is behind it. Language is not motivated, as we can also put it.
Cultural Transmission:
Human beings may be born with innate predispositions to acquire language, but they are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language. Language is not genetically transmitted. It is culturally transmitted and has to be consciously learned.
Meta-Linguistic System:
Human language can be used to talk about itself, its features, varieties and levels of sophistication.
Language is a system:
It is a system of systems. Language is not a collection of sounds and forms at random, but a highly organized system in which each unit has its place and value. Each sound is related to other sounds, each word is related to other words to make meaning.
Language is an individual and social phenomenon:
Language serves to express individual needs and urges; it also brings an individual into relationship with the external world.
Human Language is species-species and species – uniform:
Language is specific to human of the species and all human beings are capable of learning the language in which they are born.
The Origin of Language
Language in a communication system that has undergone a number of evolutionary changes which continue as we speak. While the development of language has been thoroughly examined and described, its origin still remains unknown. Obviously, it is difficult to discover how it actually came to being, but philosophers and linguists are continuously making attempts to make that discovery, coming up with numerous theories of language origin.
The divine source:
The Bible is the first example of the endeavors to uncover the origin of human language. According to it, Adam received the ability to speak from God and "whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof" (Genesis 2:19). In most major religions there seems to be the Almighty who blesses mankind with means of communication. This so-called 'divine source' theory was tested many times in the ways which presently might seem as extremely inhumane. In ancient times it was thought that if new newborn babies were brought up by mutes they would sooner or later start speaking the original language of God. In the XVI century Scottish king James IV carried out such an experiment and the children were said to have spoken in Hebrew. For this reason Hebrew was considered the language of God. None of the subsequent similar experiments revealed that children living without any contact with actual speech can acquire a language.The divine source:
Theories of Language Acquisition:
1. Behaviouristic Theory: (Environmental Influences on Language Acquisition)
A major proponent of the idea that language depends largely on environment was the behaviorist B. F. Skinner. He believed that language is acquired through principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and reinforcement. According to this view, children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events. They also learn words and syntax by imitating others. Adults enable children to learn words and syntax by reinforcing correct speech.
Critics of this idea argue that a behaviorist explanation is inadequate. They maintain several arguments:
2. Rationalistic Theory: (Biological Influences on Language Acquisition)
The main proponent of the view that biological influences bring about language development is the well-known linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky argues that human brains have a language acquisition device (LAD), an innate mechanism or process that allows children to develop language skills. According to this view, all children are born with a universal grammar, which makes them receptive to the common features of all languages. Because of this hard-wired background in grammar, children easily pick up a language when they are exposed to its particular grammar.