Nature of Language

What is a Language?

Many definitions of language have been proposed. Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar, stated: ―Language is the
expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering
to that of ideas into thoughts.‖
The U.S. linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated the following definition: ―A language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.‖

A language is considered to be a system of communicating with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a
meaning, idea or thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as
using expressions through body language.
1.
a. Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or
written symbols.
b. Such a system including its rules for combining its components, such as words.
c. Such a system as used by a nation, people, or other distinct community; often contrasted with dialect.
2.
a. A system of signs, symbols, gestures, or rules used in communicating: the language of algebra.
b. Computer Science. A system of symbols and rules used for communication with or between computers.
3. Body language; kinesics.
4. The special vocabulary and usages of a scientific, professional, or other group: "his total mastery of screen language-camera
placement, editing-and his handling of actors" (Jack Kroll).
5. A characteristic style of speech or writing: Shakespearean language.
6. A particular manner of expression: profane language; persuasive language.
7. The manner or means of communication between living creatures other than humans: the language of dolphins.
8. Verbal communication as a subject of study.
9. The wording of a legal document or statute as distinct from the spirit.

A number of considerations enter into a proper understanding of language as a subject:

1. Every physiologically and mentally normal person acquires in childhood the ability to make use, as both speaker and hearer, of a
system of vocal communication that comprises a circumscribed set of noises resulting from movements of certain organs within his
throat and mouth. By means of these he is able to impart information, to express feelings and emotions, to influence the activities of
others, and to comport himself with varying degrees of friendliness or hostility toward persons who make use of substantially the same
set of noises.

2. Different systems of vocal communication constitute different languages; the degree of difference needed to establish a different
language cannot be stated exactly. No two people speak exactly alike; hence, one is able to recognize the voices of friends over the
telephone and to keep distinct a number of unseen speakers in a radio broadcast. Yet, clearly, no one would say that they speak
different languages. Generally, systems of vocal communication are recognized as different languages if they cannot be understood
without specific learning by both parties, though the precise limits of mutual intelligibility are hard to draw and belong on a scale
rather than on either side of a definite dividing line. Substantially different systems of communication that may impede but do not
prevent mutual comprehension are called dialects of a language. In order to describe in detail the actual different speech patterns of
individuals, the term idiolect, meaning the speech habits of a single person, has been coined.

3. Normally, people acquire a single language initially—their first language, or mother tongue, the language spoken by their parents or
by those with whom they are brought up from infancy. Subsequent ―second‖ languages are learned to different degrees of competence
under various conditions, but the majority of the world’s population remains largely monolingual. Complete mastery of two languages
is designated as bilingualism; in a few special cases—such as upbringing by parents speaking different languages at home—speakers
grow up as bilinguals, but ordinarily the learning, to any extent, of a second or other language is an activity superimposed on the prior
mastery of one’s first language and is a different process intellectually.

4. Language, as described above, is species-specific to man. Other members of the animal kingdom have the ability to communicate,
through vocal noises or by other means, but the most important single feature characterizing human language (that is, every individual
language), against every known mode of animal communication, is its infinite productivity and creativity. Human beings are
unrestricted in what they can talk about; no area of experience is accepted as necessarily incommunicable, though it may be necessary
to adapt one’s language in order to cope with new discoveries or new modes of thought.

Animal communication systems are by contrast very tightly circumscribed in what may be communicated. Indeed, displaced reference,
the ability to communicate about things outside immediate temporal and spatial contiguity, which is fundamental to speech, is found
elsewhere only in the so-called language of bees. Bees are able, by carrying out various conventionalized movements (referred to as bee
dances) in or near the hive, to indicate to others the locations and strengths of nectar sources. But nectar sources are the only known

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theme of this communication system. Surprisingly, however, this system, nearest to human language in function, belongs to a species
remote from man in the animal kingdom and is achieved by very different physiological activities from those involved in speech. On
the other hand, the animal performance superficially most like human speech, the mimicry of parrots and of some other birds that have
been kept in the company of humans, is wholly derivative and serves no independent communicative function. Man’s nearest relatives
among the primates, though possessing a vocal physiology very similar to that of humans, have not developed anything like a spoken
language.

Language interacts with every other aspect of human life in society, and it can be understood only if it is considered in relation to
society. This article attempts to survey language (both spoken and written) in this light and to consider its various functions and the
purposes it can and has been made to serve. Because each language is both a working system of communication in the period and in
the community wherein it is used and also the product of its past history and the source of its future development, any account of
language must consider it from both these points of view.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, encompassing a number of sub-fields.. It includes what are generally distinguished as
descriptive linguistics and historical linguistics. Linguistics is now a highly technical subject; it embraces, both descriptively and
historically, such major divisions as phonetics, grammar, and semantics, dealing in detail with these various aspects of language. At the
core of theoretical linguistics are the study of language structure (grammar) and the study of meaning (semantics). The first of these
encompasses morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the rules that determine how words combine into phrases
and sentences) and phonology (the study of sound systems and abstract sound units). Phonetics is a related branch of linguistics
concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived.

Theoretical linguistics is mostly concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. The fields that are generally considered as
the core of theoretical linguistics are syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics. Applied linguistics attempts to put linguistic
theories into practice through areas like translation, stylistics, literary criticism and theory, discourse analysis, speech therapy, speech
pathology and foreign language teaching.

Characteristics of human language

We have to decide what we want to include in the category of "language." For example, when an angry dog barks, do we want to call
that "language"? When an ape is taught to use signs from human sign language, does the ape have language? The communication by
the dog and the ape may have some, but not all, of the characteristics found in human language. The following is a list of some of those
characteristics. If we choose, we can decide that to be "language" a communication system would have to have all of these features.
1. Language is a form of communication. (It allows for an exchange of information.)

2. Language is intentional. (Unlike when we yawn, we intend to communicate when we speak.)

3. Language uses meaningful symbols (e.g., words, signs) to communicate.

4. These symbols are arbitrary. (A horse could just as easily be called something else.)

5. Language is rule-governed. (We use rules of phonology, morphology, syntax, etc. in order to speak.)

6. Language has syntax. (It is composed of parts which we combine according to rules.)

7. Language is creative. (We can talk about brand new ideas and create brand new sentences.)

8. Language has displacement. (It can transcend time and place: we can speak about things not present or about abstract ideas.)

9. Language is learned without special training.

10. Our knowledge of language is largely subconscious.

A set of commonly accepted signs (indices, icons or symbols) is only one feature of language; all languages must define (i) the
structural relationships between these signs in a system of grammar, (ii) the context wherein the signs are used (pragmatics) and (iii)
dependent on their context the content specifity, i.e. its meaning (semantics). Rules of grammar are one of the characteristics sometimes
said to distinguish language from other forms of communication. They allow a finite set of signs to be manipulated to create a
potentially infinite number of grammatical utterances.

Another property of language is that its symbols are arbitrary. Any concept or grammatical rule can be mapped onto a symbol. In other
words, most languages make use of sound, but the combinations of sounds used do not have any necessary and inherent meaning –
they are merely an agreed-upon convention to represent a certain thing by users of that language. For instance, there is nothing about
the Spanish word nada itself that forces Spanish speakers to convey the idea of "nothing". Another set of sounds (for example, the
English word nothing) could equally be used to represent the same concept, but all Spanish speakers have acquired or learned to

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correlate this meaning for this particular sound pattern. For Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian or Bosnian speakers on the other hand, nada
means something else; it means "hope".

This arbitrariness even applies to words with an onomatopoetic dimension (i.e. words that to some extent simulate the sound of the
token referred to). For example, several animal names (e.g. cuckoo, whip-poor-will, katydid) are derived from sounds the respective
animal makes, but these forms did not have to be chosen for these meanings. Non-onomatopoetic words can stand just as easily for the
same meaning. For instance, the katydid is called a "bush cricket" in British English, a term that bears no relation to the sound the
animal makes. In time, onomatopoetic words can also change in form, losing their mimetic status. Onomatopoetic words may have an
inherent relation to their referent, but this meaning is not inherent, thus they do not violate arbitrariness.

The Main functions of Language

Descriptive: to describe factual information, e.g., I don’t have any change for the coffee machine.
Evaluative: to make a value judgment, e.g., The theory of evolution provides the best account of the origin of biological species.
Emotive: to express emotion, e.g., I shall die of unrequited love.
Evocative: to evoke an emotional response in an audience, e.g., At Speedy you’re somebody.
Persuasive: to persuade someone to accept something, as in an argument, or to act in a certain way, e.g., You shouldn’t take astrology
seriously. There is no scientific basis for it.

Interrogative: to elicit information, e.g., I won’t lend you any money unless you explain why you need it.
Directive: to tell someone to do something, e.g., Take these pills twice a day.
Performative: an utterance that constitutes an action, e.g., I now pronounce you husband and wife, when uttered in the right
circumstances.

Recreational: when language is used for fun or enjoyment, such as in the telling of a joke.

Definitions

Linguistics:
The science of languages, or of the origin, signification, and application of words.
The study of the nature, structure, and variation of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics,
sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.

Semantics:
The study or science of meaning in language.
The meaning or the interpretation of a word, sentence, or other language form.
The meaning of a string in some language, as opposed to syntax which describes how symbols may be combined independent of their
meaning.

Syntax:
The study of how words and their component parts combine to form sentences.
The study of structural relationships in language or in a language, sometimes including pronunciation, meaning, and linguistic history.
The system of inflections, syntax, and word formation of a language.
The system of rules implicit in a language, viewed as a mechanism for generating all sentences possible in that language.

Phonetics
The branch of linguistics that deals with the sounds of speech and their production, combination, description, and representation by
written symbols.
The system of sounds of a particular language.

Phonology
Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.

Phoneme
The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in
English.

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Etymology
The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes
in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and
reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.

Syntax
The study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences (and one of the major components of
grammar).
The arrangement of words in a sentence.

Morphology
In linguistics, the internal construction system of words and its study.
Languages vary widely in the number of morphemes a word can have. English has many words with multiple morphemes (e.g.,
replacement is composed of re-, place, and -ment). Many American Indian languages have a highly complex morphology; other
languages, such as Chinese, have a simple one. Morphology includes the grammatical processes of inflection, marking categories like
person, tense, and case (e.g., the -s in jumps marks the third-person singular in the present tense), and derivation, the formation of new
words from existing words (e.g., acceptable from accept).

Morpheme
A meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word (such as dog) or a word element (such as the -s at the end of dogs) that cannot be
divided into smaller meaningful parts.

Semantics
According to Linguistics: The study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent. Also called semasiology.
The scientific or philosophical study of the relations of words and their meanings.

Accent
Prominence of a syllable in terms of differential loudness, or of pitch, or length, or of a combination of these.
Degree of prominence of a syllable within a word and sometimes of a word within a phrase: primary accent; secondary accent.
A mode of pronunciation, as pitch or tone, emphasis pattern, or intonation, characteristic of or peculiar to the speech of a particular
person, group, or locality

Grapheme
The smallest meaningful unit of a written language. As with the concept of the phoneme, a grapheme is defined negatively by its
differences from other units of writing. Thus the letter b makes a difference in meaning because it differs from the letter d, so big and
dig means different things. The study of graphic signs in a given language is known as graphemics or graphology.
Accent
The way in which people in a particular area, country or social group pronounce words.

Articulation
The way in which you pronounce words or produce sounds
A good singer needs to have good articulation (= a clear way of pronouncing words)

Consonant
One of the speech sounds or letters of the alphabet which is not a vowel. Consonants are pronounced by stopping the air
from flowing easily through the mouth, especially by closing the lips or touching the teeth with the tongue.

Diphthong
A vowel sound in which the tongue changes position to produce the sound of two vowels

Dialect
A form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country, containing some different words and grammar,
etc.
A regional dialect
The poem is written in northern dialect.

Diction
The manner in which words are pronounced.
It is very helpful for a language teacher to have good diction

Inflection, also inflexion

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The way in which the sound of your voice changes during speech, for example when you emphasize particular words

Homograph
A word which is spelled the same as another word and might be pronounced the same or differently, but which has a
different meaning
'Bow' meaning the front of a ship, 'bow' meaning a loop made in a string or ribbon and 'bow' meaning a device used to shoot arrows
are all homographs.

Homonym
A word that sounds the same or is spelled the same as another word but has a different meaning
'No' and 'know' are homonyms.
'Bow' (= bend at the waist) and 'bow' (= weapon) are also homonyms.

Vowel
A speech sound produced by humans when the breath flows out through the mouth without being blocked by the teeth,
tongue or lips
A short vowel is a short sound as in the word 'cup'.
A long vowel is a long sound as in the word 'shoe'.

Homophone
A word which is pronounced the same as another word but has a different meaning or a different spelling or both

IPA
Abbreviation for the International Phonetic Alphabet: a system of symbols for showing how words are pronounced

Intonation
The sound changes produced by the rise and fall of the voice when speaking, especially when this has an effect on the
meaning of what is said
The end of a sentence that is not a question is usually marked by falling intonation.

Monotone
A sound which stays on the same note without going higher or lower
He spoke in a boring monotone

Received Pronunciation (abbreviation RP)

The standard way in which middle-class speakers of southern British English pronounce words.

silent letter
A silent letter in a word is one which is written but not pronounced, such as the 'b' in 'doubt'.

Onomatopoeia
The creation and use of words which include sounds that are similar to the noises that the words refer to
Onomatopoeic
"Pop", "boom" and "squelch" are onomatopoeic words.

Phonetics
The study of the sounds made by the human voice in speech.

Phonology
The study of sounds in a particular language or in languages generally

Grammar
The study or use of the rules about how words change their form and combine with other words to make sentences

Sentence/ WORD GROUP

A group of words, usually containing a verb, which expresses a thought in the form of a statement, question, instruction
or exclamation and starts with a capital letter when written

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Word /LANGUAGE UNIT
A single unit of language which has meaning and can be spoken or written

Phrase /GRAMMAR
1. A group of words which is part rather than the whole of a sentence
2. A short group of words which are often used together and have a particular meaning

Phraseology
The way in which language is used, especially in the choice of words and expressions

Palindrome
A word or group of words that is the same whether you read it forwards from the beginning or backwards from the end
"Refer" and "level" are palindromes.

Vocabulary
All the words which exist in a particular language or subject

Antonym
A word which means the opposite of another word
Two antonyms of 'light' are 'dark' and 'heavy'.

Synonym
A word or phrase which has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or phrase in the same language
The words 'small' and 'little' are synonyms.

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