4th Semester

SUBJECT

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

Assignments
(1) Significance of Language and Communication (2) Why Linguistics Is Essential To Understand The Language (3) To Which Theory Of Language Do You Agree?

Submitted Submitted

To Raja Kamran By Tariq Hussain

Dated 26 / 3 /2012

Significance of Language and Communication

Importance of language The most important thing which a person has to experience in any career is language. If we have the language, we got this world in our feet, and we must not be only able to speak or understand, but it should be up to its perfection. Our language can do many miracles. If we could be able to gain a good command over this language then, no one can stop us from success. In-fact, at this stage we really dont have to work hard to move ahead, because automatically the crowd will push you to your desired position. There is a valid reason for this peoples behavior, otherwise they really do not care. So, the reason is most of them do not have words for presenting themselves or representing a group, or their community. This is obviously due to lack of their capability to speak out. Here I want to give an example and this will prove my above statement. If we look around us and analyze, beginning from our childhood to the age we are now, and from schools to the corporate where we are working now, in our relations, friends, locality, or any profession there will be at least one person who is governing, heading, directing, commanding, leading, supervising, managing or at the least suggesting a group or team. What do you think about such personalities? How they could able to stand? How come they are representing a group? What qualities did they possess? What they own different from others? Do you really think that they possess something extraordinary or unusual? The truth is, that apart from a good hold in their respective subjects, they can communicate and make others understand well, they have the ability to answer, to question, to discuss, to negotiate, to convince, to influence, to impress, to satisfy, to assure, to solve, to comment, to criticize, to condemn, to accuse, to blame, to argue, to fight, they have the freedom to express their feelings and to present their talent. There are four key areas, which must be strived for all the time, as these help in naturally improving ones language, as cramming never helps anybody.

 Reading devour books and magazines A journalist must be reading newspapers and magazines on daily basis. Listening keep tuned to good channels A journalist must be a good listener too. As long as, he is putting his ears into much of a use, he can get much of an information. Secondly, he must be watching television, and listening to good sources of information. Speaking make a try, you will be better It has been observed that quite a large number of journalists are not good at communicating verbally, and there are those who can speak very well but when it comes to writing they always leave bad impression. One must try to speak the language he writing in. Never be afraid of speaking is the thumb rule. Writing most important but no way impossible For every journalist, writing is a must, and while doing so, he must be doing it to the best of his abilities. There are certain ways of improving your writing skills, and one must be following those. Importance of Communication Communication is derived from the Latin word Communico which means to share. Hence the word communication means: the process of sharing. One may ask, sharing what? Obviously sharing information, which could be facts, ideas, thoughts, feelings, needs, etc. This sharing takes place from one person to another so that it is understood. This process involves systematic and continuous process of speaking, listening, and understanding. Therefore, Communication is a process, which involves sharing of information between people through a continuous activity of speaking, listening, and understanding. Why is Communication Important? Communication is a learned skill. Most people are born with the physical ability to talk. But in order to speak well and communicate effectively you have to learn the art and improve upon your ability to talk. Speaking, listening, and our ability to understand verbal and nonverbal meanings are the skills we develop in various ways. We learn basic communication skills by observing other people and changing our behaviors based on

what we see. We also learn communication skills directly through education, practice and constant evaluation of the responses we get from people around us. Importance of communication has always been realized in all times because it is the most vital means by which people are connected together in the society. However, today communication plays a crucial role in almost all aspects of life. Work in business, government or organizations are impossible without communication. People have to communicate with each other, exchange information, make decisions, talk about new ideas, plans, proposals etc. They also have to communicate externally with foreigners and people of other races and languages. For a moment, turn your eyes inward and see how much of your waking hours you spend in communication. Nearly 70% writing, reading, speaking, and listening. As a University student, 69 percent of your communication time is spent on speaking and listening. You spend 17 percent of your communication time on reading and 14 percent writing. Dont forget, therefore, that communication is inevitable in ones life. Today, in this age and world, a successful person is the one - who can communicate effectively. Pick up any newspaper and scan the jobs wanted advertisements. You will find that communication skills are one of the essential prerequisites in most of the occupations. Be it journalist, engineers, business managers, sales officers, operators etc. Conclusion Language is one of the most important areas of human development. Our communication skills set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, and they're also what bring us together with each other. Language is obviously a vital tool. Not only is it a means of communicating thoughts and ideas, but also it forges friendships, cultural ties, and economic relationships. That is why emphasis is given to the writing and speaking better language in all spheres of communication. A journalist must have better communication skills in comparison to other people or professionals working in other fields.

Why Linguistics is Essential to Understand the Language? Introduction

Linguistics is the science of language. It is the most important tool ever invented by human beings to know about the very basics of language usage. It actually distinguishes us from other creatures in the animal kingdom. With language, we can think effectively, communicate interpersonally and collaborate with other people in work. Moreover, since we are homo sapiens, are curious in nature. We understand the issue of who we are and what we are capable of becoming better by analyzing language and understanding this most important tool of ours. It is about the study of various features which are common to all human languages besides the modes of linguistic communication (speech, writing, sign language of the deaf) related to each other. The main goal of the study of Linguistics is to increase our knowledge and understanding of the language. However, since Language is universal and fundamental to all human interactions, the knowledge attained in Linguistics has many practical applications. It is about how can learn and teach a language in a best way and how can the language problems of people with speech abnormalities be analyzed and rectified? The Sub-Fields of Linguistics Language is a phenomenon with many layers, from the sounds that come out of peoples mouths to the meanings that those sounds express. The field of Linguistics is composed of sub-fields, and most professional linguists become specialists in one or more of those sub-fields. The major sub-fields are the following:

Phonetics : This

is the study of speech sounds themselves. Phoneticians study both the

production of speech sounds by the human speech organs (articulatory phonetics) and the properties of the sounds themselves (acoustic phonetics). Phoneticians are concerned with such questions as the following: What are the sounds, from among all those that humans could make, that actually exist in the worlds languages? what specially defines different accents? can speakers be identified by voiceprints? What are the properties of sounds that would go into computerized speech synthesis?

Phonology : This

is the study of the organization of language sounds. Phonologists are

concerned with questions such as the following: what sounds contrast in one language but not another (answers to such questions explain why Spanish speakers have trouble with the difference between English sh and ch, or why English speakers have trouble with the different u sounds in French words like rue street and roue wheel.)? What sounds of a language can or cannot occur one after the other (for example, why can words begin in st- in English but not in Spanish)? ...how do poets or writers or song lyrics intuitively know how to match the rhythm of speech to the abstract rhythmic pattern of a poetic or musical meter?

Morphology :

This is the study of the make-up of words. Morphologists study such

questions as the following: To what extent are ways of forming words productive or not (why do we say arrival and amusementbut not *arrivement and *amusal)? What determines when words change form (why does English have to add er to adjectives when making comparisons but Hebrew does not add any equivalent)? how can we get a computer to recognize the root of a word separated from its affixes (e.g. how could a computer recognize walk, walks, walking, and walked as the same word)?

Syntax :

This is the study of how phrases and sentences larger than the word are

constructed. Syntacticians address such questions as the following: How can the number of sentences we could utter be infinite in number even though the number of words in any language is finite? What is it that makes a sentence like visiting relatives can be boring ambiguous? Why would English speakers judge a sentence like colorless green ideas sleep furiously to be grammatical even though it is nonsensical? how can languages express the same thoughts even though they construct their sentences in different ways (e.g. why does English I saw them there mean the same thing as French je les y ai vus even though the order of elements in French is I them there have seen)? How can a computer be programmed to analyze the structure of sentences (note that answers to this question would be crucial for machine translation because of differences in sentence formation across languages)?

Semantics :This
following: How do we

is the study of meaning. Semanticists answer such questions as the

know

what

words

mean

(how

do

we

know

where red stops

and orange starts)? What is the basis of metaphors (why is my car is a lemon a good metaphor

but my car is a cabbage is not)? what makes sentences like Im looking for a tall student or the student I am looking for must be tall have more than one meaning? In a sentence like I regret that he lied, how do we know that, in fact, he did lie? How many meanings can be found in a sentence like three students read three books and why do just those meanings exist?

Conclusion
For learning and understanding about any language, it is imperative and essential at the same time to learn about their science; how they are used, pronounced, spelled, their phonology, semantics and their structures? So linguistics is of the utmost importance because without having a sound knowledge of this, we would not be able to learn any language with accuracy and correctness. The first is the study of language structure, or grammar. This focuses on the system of rules followed by the speakers (or hearers) of a language.

It encompasses morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the formation and composition of phrases and sentences from these words),

and phonology (sound systems). Phonetics is a related branch of linguistics concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds and non speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived.

To Which Theory Of Language Do You Agree?

Introduction

Ancient people believed that language came from the divine source, and it was a gift created by God. Many of them tried to experiment the divine language by isolating infants and they were raised without any forms of language.

According to the experiment carried out by the Egyptian Pharaoh, the first word that the two isolated grown children ever spoke was bekos, which was the word for bread in Phrygian. As for children, their first word to speak was not asking for their parents but for food. We can make an assumption: it is possible that the main function or the main reason for human to speak a language is to communicate with each other on the topic about essential needs for survival. It is more likely that human was driven to use language by their instinct of urge to survive. In this case, it was a denial to what the la-la theory or songs of love suggested, that language is invented by feeling stimulation like love and joy, which was romantic but not vital for our lives. After all, linguistic is the scientific study of language, which should be objective and rational but not too affective. The divine source theories probably would not be accepted today because they were nearly idolatry. Different religions have its own culture and their own images of God, thus it is very unlikely to reach a common consensus of what is the divine language, let alone to corroborate them. According to the theory of evolution, language was developed partly depends on the humans greatly evolved brain, the left of it specialised in language. That was the reason why human is the only living creature that could develop language. The apes, generally regarded as one of the most intelligent animals, are a lot like human. They live together and form some kind of a clan. They can teach and learn from each other, and we already discovered that they can even make different sounds and use gesture to communicate with each other. We might wonder why such clever apes could not evolve language. Maybe human in many years ago evolve the same way too, humans might started from using body gesture and emitting sound that later turned into words and sentences. The theory of evolution assumed that human beings and language originated simultaneously, and that human beings are innately equipped to learn language. The reason is unexplained, but what we have known the theory is that, very likely the only thing that needed for human to develop language is time.

Evolution

Conclusion
I agree with the divine source theory as it seems a little bit relevant and logical. Many etymologists spent their lifetime searching for the answers, yet there is no exact explanation for the question of the origin of language. The origin of language might just be too long ago

and was not easy for us to trace back. Small pieces were missing, causing many uncertainties, making us difficult to see the whole picture of it. Numbers of theories have been brought up, probably all of them had loopholes, and so far we could not find a precise comprehension or impeccable evidence to support those theories. Nevertheless, we can keep on suggesting new ideas upon what we have understood, and hope that one day we can complete the puzzle of language.