Language

WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
• The method of human communication, either
spoken or written, consisting of the use of
words in a structured and conventional way.
• Language is a system of words or signs that
people use to express thoughts and feelings to
each other. (merriam-webster.com)
• Language is a system of communication, a
medium for thought, and a social interaction.
• Language is commonly defined (simply) as “a means of
communication”; but if it is defined so, there will be no
difference between human communication and animal
communication. The reason is because, both animal
and human do have means to communicate
• To be more scientific, a language can be defined as: “An
arbitrary system(with no intrinsic connection to their
meaning) of creative vocal symbols used as a means of
communication among human beings”
• Let us see what is meant by arbitrary system, vocal
symbol, creative, and means of communication as the
characteristics or properties of human language
 A. Language is Arbitrary
• A language is arbitrary because the
relationship between a vocal symbol (in form,
in the sense of linguistics) and the entity,
state, event, or action (meaning) of the vocal
symbol cannot be proved logically.
• For example, the question of: “why the entity
birds are called “birds” in English” and not
“monkey “ or “money” for instance, cannot be
answered
 Language is Vocal Symbols
• Considering a language as a construction of vocal
symbols, we actually want to distinguish oral
from written language. A language is originally
oral / spoken (vocal symbols). In other words, we
can say that spoken language is the origin of a
language. See this fact!!! Children grow up
learning and speaking a language (orally) before
learning to write. Even in this modern age, some
people still cannot write but they can
communicate with a language.
• On the other hand, writing or written
language is the best thought of as a written
representation of a language. One of the
differences (in characteristics) between oral
and written language is that written language
tends to be prescriptive (what one thinks it/
the language ought to be) but oral/ spoken
language is not prescriptive.
 Language is Creative
• No matter how well a dictionary of a language is
designed and written, it will never contain all
possible sentences that a human being (the
speaker of a language) can make and use for
communication. Once we speak a language (say,
our mother tongue/ native language), the
components and rules of the language enables us
to create infinite number/ unlimited numbers of
sentences. It enables us to put words together to
make phrases, put phrases together to make
sentences, and so forth.
• As illustration, the same word can be employed in so
many different infinite numbers of sentences, as
exemplified with the following phrases:
• 1. I eat rice. You eat bread.
• 2. The goats eat bread and cheese. (Have you ever
created or heard this possible sentence before?).
• 3. They eat grass.
• 4. I eat rice, you eat bread, the goats eat cheese, they
eat grass, …… eat ……, ….. eat ……. and so on. (How
many times can you repeat the word “eat” in the last
sentence? How long can you make the sentence? The
answer is, It is infinite).
• Indeed, we create and hear new sentences in
our language all the time in our everyday
communication. Even we may have created
and heard a sentence that had never been
spoken or heard before, but we did not realize
it. This is because a language is creative.
Language is a Mean of Communication
• Language is only one among another means of
communication, but it is the most perfect means of
communication possessed by human beings. The use of a
language as a means of communication is what
distinguishes animal communication from the
communication among human beings.
• In most societies (or cultures) there are fables, legends,
etc., where we are told that animals do play speaking role,
not only among themselves but also with human beings.
But can the fables, or legends provide evidence that
animals do speak and have language? While human beings
communicate with language; it is believed that animals
simply communicate with their instinct; but this belief has
not been proved empirically.
What is “Linguistics”
• Linguistics is the study of languages. The subject
matter of linguistics is language.
• Traditionally, linguistics studies a language as a formal
system consisting of four main branches, known as
“micro linguistics”; Besides, the linguistic studies
which are supposed as the interdisciplinary (relating to
more than one branch of knowledge) field of studies
that identify, investigate and offer solutions to
language-related real life problems, called “macro
linguistics or applied linguistics”; and There are also
some other linguistic branches.