Notes on Nature of Language for IX to XII

Unit I
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 ones want through the expression of words,
or putting thoughts and ideas into action.
One of the most basic human urges is to communicate.

Language is a systematic means of communication by the use of words,

conventional signs and symbols.

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 view
points.
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.

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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, ibut 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.
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Meta-Linguistic System: Human language can be used to talk about itself, its
features, varieties and levels of sophistications.
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.

UNIT II
Language (Reference)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.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

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LANGUAGE
Definition
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 ones 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 a field. 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
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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 backclipping: 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.

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.
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II For Learning:
Gaining tolerance through experiencing a wide range of new and different view
points.
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, ibut 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

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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 meaning 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. (Cite Examples)
Meta-Linguistic System: Human language can be used to talk about itself, its
features, varieties and levels of sophistications.
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.

Theories of Language Acquisition:

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:
o

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.

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o

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 cant result from imitation, since adults generally use correct verb forms.

Children acquire language skills even though adults do not consistently correct their
syntax.

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.
Evidence for an innate human capacity to acquire language skills comes from the
following observations:
o

The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children,
even though different children experience very different environments.

Childrens 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.

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
thorouhgly 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 endavours 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
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if new newborn babies were brought up by mutes they would sooner or later start
spaeking 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 whitout any contact with actual speech can
aquire a language.

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