LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE

Origin

Language comes from Latin ‘Lingua’ which means ‘which is produced with the tongue’.

Meaning

Language is the means of communicating thoughts and feelings, though not the only means.

Language can be defined as an arbitrary system of vocal sounds that human beings use in their day to day life for meaningful communication.

Definitions of Language

1.   Speech is the representation of the experience of the mind

- Aristotle.

2.   Language is a set of arbitrary vocal symbols, by means of which a social group communicates.

- Bloch and Trager in Outline of Linguistic Analysis.

3. Language is a set of human habits, the purpose of which is to give expression to human thoughts and feelings especially to impart them to others.

                                                                - Jesperson.

4. When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call “human essence”, the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man.

                                - Noam Chomsky in Language and Mind.

5. Language is purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.

                                                        - E. Sapir in Language.

6. Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech sounds combined into words.

                                                                - Henry Sweet.

7. A language [is a ] symbol system … based on pure or arbitrary convention … infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speakers.

                                        - R.H. Robins in General Linguistics.

8. Human languages are unlimited … an unlimited set of discrete signals … have great structural complexity …. Are open-ended … allow for the transmission of information.

                        - R. W. Langacker in Language and its Structure.

Inferences

1.   Language is a means of communication and self expression

2.   Language is arbitrary

3.   Language is non-instinctive; conventional

4.   Language is symbolic

5.   Language is systematic

6.   Language is vocal

7.   Language is a form of social behaviour

8.   Language is human

9.   Language is open-ended, extendable and modifiable

10.         Language is structurally complex.

Nature of a Language

       

        Language is a learned arbitrary system of vocal symbols by means of which human beings interact and communicate in terms of their common cultural experiences.

Inferences

1.   Language is learnt

2.   Language is a system

3.   Language is arbitrary

4.   Language is a system of symbols (sounds)

5.   Language symbols are vocal

6.   Language is based on common cultural experience

7.   Language changes

Misconceptions about Language

1.   Languages are logical

Ex.1. The sound ‘f’ in the words enough, lieutenant, far, philosophy.

      2. Bourgeois

2.   Languages are unlearnable

3.   Some languages are better than others

4.   Exact equivalents between two languages

5.   Exact equivalents within a language

Ex.1. sick, ill, unwell, pale, ailing

6.   Writing is language.

-        Speech comes first in the life of human beings

-        There are languages without a written form e.g. Konkani.