Language

HOW DID
LANGUAGE
BEGIN?
• How Did Language [Link]
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DO ANIMALS HAVE
LANGUAGE?
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• The term “homo-sapiens” means “man the wise” and infers those
qualities that distinguish human beings from the class of all other
animals. It infers the dominance of the human species on the planet
and human ability to further extend its knowledge to make work
easier and more efficient as well as organise himself into complex
societies. Further, it infers human ability to conceptualize and
develop abstract ideas and engage in problem solving. All these
capabilities, which set mankind apart from other species, may be said
to be facilitated by his use of language.
• It is true that all animals, like human beings, have a system of
communication by which they send and receive ideas about their
needs and feelings. But animal communication lacks the complexity
we associate with human language in a number of significant ways.
• Animal communication is not reflective or descriptive. For example,
primates like the chimpanzee may watch a spider with intense
interest but could not describe what is seen to other chimpanzees.
• A fish caught in a fisherman’s net can communicate distress to other
fish by sounds and thrashing about but should it escape the net,
would it be able to reflect on the near death experience and warn
other fish to be wary of the nets?
• Animal communication is not predominantly vocal. Like most other
animals, chimpanzees, for example, communicate using gestures,
touch, sounds, facial expressions and colours but these are all limited
to their immediate needs and feelings.
• In fact, communicative gestures are often more important to animals
than the different sounds they use. Smell is an important means of
animal communication to ants which use it to mark a trail and to dogs
which mark off their territory by scent markers.
• Like humans, animals can show fear, anger and pleasure by facial
expressions. They may pat and hug each other as a sign of affection
and bonding. Apes and gorillas shake their fists and stamp their feet
to show anger but the “smiling” chimpanzee may not be displaying
amusement or pleasure but rather fear and the showing of its teeth
may well be a defensive posture.
• Animal communication is instinctive. Young animals do not have to be
taught which predators to fear or which calls mean danger or distress.
When a hen, for example, gives a danger signal, unhatched chicks (who
chirp inside their eggs) have been observed to keep quiet and inactive by
instinct.
• Instinct accounts for a fixed pre-coded communication knowledge which
limits the range of expressions which those animals actually need for their
survival.
• Bees, for example, can communicate to others the location and distance of
nectar based on the position of the sun as a marker but such
communication does not allow these bees to discuss the relative merits of
other food sources or alternate organisation of the hierarchy within the
hive.
SO, WHAT IS
LANGUAGE?
• So far we may deduce that while all languages facilitate
communication, communication is not synonymous with language.
We have also seen that there are many different forms of
communication and that animal communication may not be
considered to be a language.
• Linguists have identified a number of features which constitute
human language. Animal communication may share some of these
features but only human language possesses all these features.
Definition One
• “Language is an inborn potential to use a linguistic system of signs
and sounds (called a code) for the purpose of communication that is
shared by all other human beings.” Ferdinand de Saussure
Definition Two
• Language is the ability of humans to express ourselves through words
that define our inner feelings, describe what we see or hear, explain
how we understand the world around us and express our thoughts. It
is a characteristic that separates humans from the rest of the animal
kingdom.
Definition Three
• Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of speech as
opposed to, say, sign language.” Edward Sapir (1921)
A Language
• A language refers to a specific use of a particular code within a
language community (for example French, Spanish, English or Creole)
at a given time and place.
• A language is any distinct system of verbal expression. This means
that a language is distinguishable from other languages because of
certain characteristics, namely structure and vocabulary.
• So, English, Spanish, Jamaican Creole and Portuguese are examples of
languages and in expressing themselves verbally, the speakers of
these languages are using language.
• Animals are considered not to have language based on two crucial
premises – the nature of language and the function of language.
NATURE AND
CHARACTERISTICS OF
LANGUAGE
Human
• It is a uniquely human activity used within human societies for the
purpose of communicating.
• It occurs naturally for humans who do not have to consciously
convert their thoughts into speech.
• According to linguist, David Crystal (1989), it refers to human vocal
noise or the graphic representation of this noise in writing.
Verbal
• Language is first spoken and then written.
• Language is a system of vocal and verbal symbolism. It is essentially
comprised of vocal sounds just created by a physiological articulatory
component in the human body. First and foremost, it shows up as vocal
sounds only. Language takes verbal elements such as sounds, words and
phrases which are fixed up in certain ways to make several sentences.
• Language is vocal and sound which is produced by different speech organs.
Writing can be considered as an intelligent platform to represent vocal
sounds. It is only the graphic representation of the speech sounds of the
language. So linguistics say that speech is primary.
Non-instinctive
• Humans are not born possessing a language. Children naturally learn
it through socialization within groups that speak a particular
language. Such groups are known as language communities.
• Humans are born with a predisposition towards acquiring language
but the language we learn to speak is culturally determined. It is
dependent on the society in which we grow up and not necessarily on
the language our parents speak.
Symbolic
• There is hardly a fixed and inherent association between words in a
language and the object or ideas that the words signify. The meaning
of the symbols used to represent certain concepts is determined by
the speakers within the language community.
• If the use of symbols within the language was not arbitrarily assigned
then the word ‘book’ in English could not correctly be referred to as
the French ‘cahier’ of the Spanish ‘libro’ without any confusion.
• NB: The terms ‘symbolic’ and ‘arbitrary’ or often used
interchangeably.
• Example: A female adult human is called woman in English, aurat in
Urdu, Zen in Persian and Femine is French.
Dynamic
• Language is always changing as new words are always being added to
its lexicon or system of words and words which become archaic are
dropped from use.
• Also, the meaning of some words change with the passage of time.
• Example: The word ‘idiot’ from its Greek root originally meant a
private individual. Today it means foolish or mentally deficient.
Consider also the recent change in the meaning of words like ‘menu’,
‘mouse’ and ‘web’ since the advent of the Internet.
• Examples of Archaic words: Beldam—an old woman, Blackguard—a
scoundrel, Excogitate—plot, plan, devise
Maturational
• Language acquisition is maturational. This means that as a normal
human being develops and grows older he will gain the use of more
words and more complex sentences than he was formally taught.
• The human brain will generate novel words and utterances and the
speaker will even use old words and expressions in new ways. This is
what keeps language dynamic.
Systematic
• Language consists of rules and conventions that regulate its
structure, pronunciation and order. Its system provides the
framework for generating and producing speech acts appropriate for
an infinite number of new situations rather than providing us with a
finite store of ready-made utterances.
• Hence, the language system allows us to forever create speech acts
never before uttered.
The System Governing Language
• 1. Phonetics – the study of speech sounds
• 2. Phonology – the study of the sound system of a language
• 3. Morphology – the study of the grammatical structure of words
• 4. Syntax – the study of the grammatical structure of sentences
• 5. Lexicon - the complete set of meaningful units in a language
• 5. Semantics – the study of the different aspects of meaning
• 6. Ethnolinguistics – the science of the relationship between language and
culture
• 7. Sociolinguistics- the study of speech variation within a single speech
community
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THE LINGUISTIC
SIGN
• Language is composed of signs. These are the figures, marks and
devices that are used to express a particular meaning. The linguistic
sign stands for something other than itself and it has two
components: the signal and the signified.
• The signal refers to the letters, words and icons that make up the sign
and the signified refers to the thoughts and ideas that the sounds and
images of the signal represent.
• According to the philosopher C.S. Pierce, there are three types of
signs:
The Symbolic Sign
• This involves signals that are arbitrary in meaning and do not
resemble what they stand for. If the meaning of the linguistic sign
were not arbitrary, the same signs would represent the same
thoughts and meanings in every language.
• The meaning of the symbolic sign is determined by the people who
use the signs. Because meaning is determined by social convention,
the meaning of a sign changes when a speech community agrees that
there are changes in the way they view and understand the meaning
of the sign.
The Symbolic Sign
• Except for a few quasi-iconic words like the onomatopoeias “woof”
and “creak,” most signs in verbal languages are symbolic. There is no
physical connection or natural resemblance between the English
word “dog” and the concept dog.

• Examples of symbolic signs include language in general, letters in the

alphabet, punctuation marks, words, phrases, sentences, numbers,
Morse code, national flags, wedding rings etc.
The Iconic Sign
• This consists of signals that resemble the thing or idea that they stand
for.
• Examples of iconic signs include pictures, models and imitative
gestures.
The Iconic Sign
• A given signifier can make you think of something else signified
inasmuch as it resembles that something else, looks like it, sounds
like it, feels like it, tastes like it, smells like it, or, more generally,
possesses some similar quality to it (as in spreading your arms out to
signify huge).
• Iconic signs are obviously important for images, since many images
resemble what they refer to. For instance, a female and male public
toilet, the signs for these make it clear as to which door is for which
gender.
The Indexical Sign
• This consists of signals which are directly connected in some way to
the thing they represent. Unlike the symbolic sign, the relationship
between the indexical sign and what it stands for is not arbitrary.
• Examples of the indexical sign are seen in the connection between
smoke and fire, the symptoms of an illness, and the wind sock and
the direction of the wind.
• Footprints are an indexical sign that someone walked here and
certain automatic gestures and facial expressions are indexical signs
of feelings, like tears equal sadness.
The Indexical Sign
• In addition to these “natural” indexes, things that are only
customarily or conventionally connected can also be used as indexical
signs.
• A very good example of this is a picture of the White House in a news
broadcast as it is often used as an indexical sign for the American
president because the White House is the home and office of the
president.
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