ENG 101 Introduction to Language

Instructor: Ayo Ayodele PhD

[Link]@[Link]

Course Description
This course examines what the nature of language is, how the science of
linguistics analyzes language data, and how language is acquired and is
used by humans. We will examine the concept of human language origin, the
features of language, forms and functions of language, language
development, language endangerment, language families, language and
culture, language and ideology, language and the environment, language
change, language and identity.

Course learning goals

At the completion of this course, students will be able to:
 define the term ‘human language’
 evaluate popular views on the origin of human languages
 identify the qualities that differentiate human language from animal
signs
 explain the forms and functions of language
 demonstrate knowledge about language in the world including a
sophisticated understanding of linguistic and cultural variation
Course Content

1. The concept of human language and its origin

1.1 Definition of language
1.2 Theories of the origin of human language
1.3 The notion of language families
2. Characteristics of language
2.1 Human i-e. Animals cannot be taught to reproduce sounds
sequences or formulate sentences of their own
2.2 System and rule governed: language operates as the systems of
sound (substance) and grammar (form).
2.3 Symbolic: uses words as representations or symbol of ideas
2.4 Evolutionary: changes over time and new words are created,
new meanings introduced
2.5 Specie-specific

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 2.6 Displacement: humans can refer to past and future time.
2.7 Arbitrariness: no ‘natural’ connection between a linguistic form
and its meaning
2.8 Productivity and creativity: human beings are unrestricted in
what they can communicate
2.9 Cultural transmission: language is passed on from one
generation to the next.
2.10 Duality of patterning: human language is organized at two levels
or layers simultaneously; as individual sounds or different
combinations
2.11 Conventional: language is the result of advancement and
tradition.
3. The structure of language: phonological, syntactic, semantic
4. Functions of language: communication, phatic communion,
5. Language development, change and language endangerment,
6. Language and culture,
7. Language and ideology,
8. Language and the environment,
9. Language and identity.

REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Bloomfield Leonard (1914): An introduction to the study of language. New York:
Henry Holt and company.
National Open University of Nigeria Course Material.
Nordquist, Richard. (2020, August 28). Language Family Definition and
Examples. Retrieved from [Link]
family-1691216
The Holy Bible (1974). Authorised King James Version. Texas: International Bible
Association.
Yule, G. (1985). The Study of Language. United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press

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 1. What is language?
According to the definition of Encyclopedia Britannica, language is a system
of conventional or written symbols through which human beings as
members of social groups and participants in its culture, communicate. In
other words, it says the language is a system of communication through
which human beings express themselves.

Generally, a language is a structured system of communication used by

humans, based on speech and gesture, sign, or often writing . The
structure of language is its grammar and the free components are its
vocabulary.

Definition of Language by Different scholars

Aristotle
Speech is the representation of the experience of the mind. That is
according to Aristotle, language is a speech sound produced by human
beings to express their ideas, emotions, thoughts, desires and feelings.
Saussure
Language is an arbitrary system of signs constituted of the signifier and
signified. In other words, language is first a system based on no logic or
reason. Secondly, the system covers both objects and expressions used for
objects.
Thirdly objects and expressions are arbitrarily linked. And finally,
expressions include sounds and graphemes used by humans for generating
speech and writing respectively for communication.
Sapir
According to Sapir, language is a purely human and non-instinctive method
of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires through a system of
voluntarily produced sounds.
The definition of Sapir expresses that language is mainly concerned with
only human beings and constituted a system of sounds produced by them
for communication.
Bloomfield
The totality of the utterances that can be made in a speech community is
the language of that speech community.
Bloomfield’s definition of language focuses on the utterances produced by
all the people of a community, and hence overlooks writing. Besides, he
stresses form, not meaning, as the basis of language.
Wardhaugh
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A language is a system of arbitrary vocal sounds used for human
communication. This definition of language by Wardhaugh mainly insists on
arbitrariness, vocal sounds, humans and communication.
Thus, we can say, language is a system of communication or arbitrary vocal
sounds through which human beings are used to communicate and interact
with each other in their everyday life.
There are approximately 6,500 spoken languages available in the entire
world used by different kinds of social groups and cultures.
1.2 The Origin of Human Language

It has been easier to trace the origin of other things, (like the origin of man)
because there are traces to their remnants like bones, faunas etc. However,
tracing the origin of language has not been easy because it has no tangible
structure like that of fossils, which in event of language death, the structure
could be taken and its past or origin traced to one ancestral or parental
language in one interior part of the world. Because of dearth of documented
evidence for the origin of human spoken language, various concepts and
theories pertaining to the evolution of human spoken language have been
proposed: the divine theory, natural sound theory, oral-gesture theory,
glossogentic theory and interactional function theory.

1.2.1 The Divine Theory

According to the Bible, God created Adam and Eve, earth and everything
therein. Genesis 2:19 says, “from the ground God formed every wild animal
and every bird in the sky, and he brought them to man so man could name
them. Whatever, the man called each living thing that became its name”. In
other words, language can be traced to the first man, Adam” or God
himself. The biblical version also provides an explanation for the origin of
several different languages. According to Genesis 11:1-9, the whole world
spoke one language and of one speech (dialect). In an attempt to build a
tower called ‘Babel’ to reach heaven, God confounded the people’s effort by
causing them to begin to speak different languages, thus causing the people
to be scattered to different locations of the world. It is also argued that the
evidence from closely related languages which share common features
supports the divine origin theory.

1.2.2 Bow-Wow Theory

Bow-wow theory is based on the assumption that human language comes

from ‘natural sounds’. The assumption is that primitive words could have
been imitation of the natural sounds which early men and women heard

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around them. The proponents of this theory believed that language evolved
by imitating the sounds objects make in the environment. For example,
when a goat ‘bleats’, ‘me-e’ or ‘be-e’ as in ‘bekos’ experiment, the primitive
humans imitated these sounds and used it to refer to the object associated
with the sound.

Arbitrariness, as one of the identified features of human language is based

on the premise that there is no direct relation between an object and what it
is called (see to 1.5). However, every natural language has some words with
pronunciation that sounds like the natural sound that the object makes.
Consider the following examples of “motorcycle” in Nigerian languages:

• Motorcycle: English • Obatumtum: Igbo • Alupupu: Yoruba • Akpukpuk:

Ibibio • Akpokpok: Anaang

A motorcycle to a Yoruba speaker sounds ‘pupu’, to an Igbo ‘tum tum’, to an

Anaang ‘kpok-kpok’, and to an Ibibio ‘akpukpuk as such they named the
object based on the perceived sound it makes. It is common to hear children
call cow as ‘muu’. In English we have the screeching of a car tyre, the
booming sound of gun, the splashing of water. These sounds are
linguistically referred to as ‘onomatopoeic’ words.

Critics counter this assumption with an argument that if all objects in the
world get their names from the sounds associated to them, how do we
obtain names for soundless or some abstract entities like love, hatred,
anger, beauty, electrical, technical etc.

1.2.3 Natural Cries of Emotion Theory

To counter the critics’ position on the bow-wow concept, another group

proposed that the original sounds of language came from natural cries of
emotion such as anger, joy and pain. By this, some exclamatory marks or
interjection like Eh!, Ah!, Oh!, Wao!, Hey! are associated with some
connotations.

The theory on natural cries of emotion is criticized in that the expressive

noise people utter in emotional reactions contains sounds that are not
normally used in the language, and this assumption seems not to comply
with source-sounds as the basis for language evolution.

1.2.4 Yo-Heave-Ho Theory

This is part of ‘natural sound’ theory that says the source of human
language emanates from the sounds made during the exertion of physical

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effort in doing things. As such a group of early humans might have through
co-coordinated efforts evolve language through grunts, groans and swear
words which they used when lifting and carrying heavy trees, stones and
irons. The most interesting thing about this assumption is that it places the
evolution of human language within the society in which language is used
(see 1.4.1). The critics to this concept argue that this does not answer the
question to the origin of language, because apes and other primates have
grunts and social calls, yet they do not seem to have developed the capacity
for speech (Yule 2002:3).

1.2.5 The Oral – Gesture Theory

This theory says language evolved through physical gesture and orally
produced sounds. This suggests an extremely specific relationship between
physical and oral gestures. This is actually a means of nonverbal
communication which is supportive of oral communication. The theory
claims that originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of
communication. Then a set of oral gestures involving the mouth specifically,
actually developed, in which other organs of speech were co-coordinated
and recognised in relation to the type of movement to match with the
physical gestures. You might consider the shaking of the hand in negation
(physical gesture) to represent the movement of the tongue (oral gesture) in
a ‘no’ response. This is a kind of specialized pantomime. However, there are
some messages that cannot be adequately sent across through physical
gesture.

6.7 Glossogenetic Theory

This theory focuses on the biological basis in the formation and

development of human language. It is largely connected with some of the
physical features of humans that other creatures lack. It emphasizes the
premise that at the early stage, our human ancestors made themselves
different from other primates by taking an upright posture with the use of
two legs for walking and the hands for other things. This theory claims that
the effect of this postural change is evident in the physical differences
between human skull and that of other primates like gorilla and
chimpanzee. In the evolutionary transformation, these physical structures
are instrumental for speech production particularly for creatures with the
most sophistication in their speech capacity.

There are different physiological adaptations that can be attributed to the

sophistication of man’s speech capacity when compared to other animals

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(see unit 6). The human brain is lateralised with localisation of functions.
The human teeth are upright located while those of apes are slanting
outwards. Other sound production apparatuses that are structured in
humans for adaptation for sound production are the interlacing lip
structure, the shape and chamber of the mouth for resonating sounds,
flexible and mobile tongue for modulation of sounds, the larynx for vibration
or non-vibration of the vocal cord.

1.3 Language Families

A language family is a group of different languages that all descend

from a particular common language. The one language that generated
those other languages in its family is known as a protolanguage. A ccording
to Ethnologue (16th edition), there are 147 language families in the world.

The number of languages that make up a language family varies

greatly. The largest African family, Niger-Congo, is estimated to
consist of about 1,000 languages and several times as many dialects.
Yet there are many languages that do not appear to be related to any
other. These single-member language families are referred to
as language isolates. The Americas have been more linguistically
diversified than other continents; the number of Native American
language families in North America has been judged to be more than
70, including more than 30 isolates.

Language Families With The Highest Number Of Speakers

Rank Language Family Place of Origin

1 Indo-European Asia, Europe

2 Sino-Tibetan Asia

3 Niger-Congo Africa

4 Austronesian Asia, Oceania

ASSIGNMENT

1. Considering all the hypotheses on the evolution of human language.

Which of them do you consider acceptable in explaining the origin of human
language; and why?

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2. What is the basic idea behind the bow-wow theory?

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