WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

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WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
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• Of course I know what language is. I use it all
  the time

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What is language?
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• Language is a very complex phenomenon.
• There is both a functional side to language (the
  jobs language does in human society) and there
  is a formal side (the way language is structured)

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Language is many things

• It is a system of communication
• A medium for thought
• A vehicle for literary expression
• A social institution
• A matter for political controversy
• A factor for nation building
• All normal human beings speak at least one
  language, and it is hard to imagine much
  significant social or intellectual activity
  taking place in its absence.

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• Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols
  used for human communication.
• (Wardhaugh, 1994)

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The importance of understanding language  

• Language is everywhere.
• It permeates our thoughts, mediates our relations
  with others, and even creeps into our dreams.
• Most human knowledge and culture is stored and
  transmitted in language, which is so ubiquitous
  that we take it for granted.
• Without it, however, society as we know it would
  be impossible.

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The Universals of Language 

• Characteristics that apply to all known
  languages, everywhere, at any one time, are
  called universal traits.
• The exact number of such traits will vary
  according to the classifying system used, but
  here we shall discuss five major ones
•  
• 1. Language is human.
• 2. Language is spoken.
• 3. Language changes in various ways.
• 4. Language is systematic.
• 5. Language is symbolic in various ways.
•  

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Language is human

• No species besides homo sapiens appear to use the
  communication system of language in the same way
  that human beings do.
• Belonging only to human beings, language is
  therefore species specific.
• Children (with the exceptions of isolated feral
  children and of the physically impaired) do
  acquire language. Some children may use language
  more competently than others for instance,
  children who are severely mentally retarded often
  have severe speech impediments as well.
• But with the exceptions noted, there is no known
  instance of a human being not using language.
• Belonging to all human beings, language is
  therefore species universal.
• To be human is, above all, to speak.

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Language is spoken

•  All languages, whether they are now or were ever
  written, were and are first spoken.
• Children learn to speak long before they are able
  to write and children do not need to be formally
  taught to speak, as they usually do to write.
• Furthermore, all adult language users speak more
  often, and speak many more utterances, than they
  ever write.

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Language changes

•  All languages change in various ways, and any
  language is in a constant, slow, not always
  steady process of alteration.
• Constructions are dropped or added, old patterns
  combined in new ways, new words coined from old
  parts. This form of change is chronological or
  historical change over time.
•  
• In addition to changing over time, all languages
  show variation over space. At any particular
  time, many different versions of the same
  language will be spoken in different regions by
  different types of people. These variations are
  collectively known as dialects.

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Language is systematic

• Every language in the world regulates itself,
  fits its units and unit groups together in
  predictable ways, and produces systematically
  intelligible sounds and sentences.
• No languages systems are more primitive or
  more advanced than any others -- which is to
  say, there is no correlation between the
  technological complexity of a culture and the
  complexity of its language.
• All languages are complex but regular at all
  levels, from sound to form to sentence.
•  
•  
•   Usually the means or patterns of regulation --
  the systematic structure -- are fairly limited in
  number. For example, depending on the expert you
  talk to, English has about 45 sound patterns and
  about 15 to 30 basic sentence structuring
  (syntactic) patterns.

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Language is symbolic

• Words have no inherent, innate, or divinely
  decreed meanings.
• Words merely stand for, represent, or symbolize
  meaning.
• The creature we call a whale is not so named
  because whale has some innate connection with
  large, aquatic mammals, but because a majority of
  English speakers use that name.
• Other language speakers use other names la
  baleine (French), der Walfisch (German), la
  ballena (Spanish).
• All of these different terms are symbols for the
  creature itself, for the referent-- that is, the
  figure (or idea or action) to which a word
  refers.

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• What do you know when you know a language?

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• Many people consider knowing a language to be
  the ability to speak that language well.
• Your linguistics competence is your (mostly
  unconscious) knowledge of the rules of a
  language.
• This competence differs in significant ways from
  linguistic performance, which is your actual
  speech behaviour.

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The sound system (phonology)

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• Part of your competence has to do with the
  phonology of the language.
• When you hear or attempt to learn a foreign
  language, you become acutely aware that other
  languages have sounds that English does not have
  -- for example, the French r , Spanish or French
  p , the clicks of some African languages, the
  German u and o vowels, and the tones of
  languages like Chinese.

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Morphology

• Speech consists of continous utterances.
• Often there are no physical breaks between words.
  
• Yet we can break utterances down into words
  without difficulty.

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• For example, (a) can be broken down into (b),
  but no speaker would break it down to (c).
•  
• (a) hewenttotownonhishorse
• (b) he went to town on his horse
• (c) hew enttot ow nonh ishor se

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Syntax

• You can recognize well-formed -- that is,
  grammatical sentences
•  
• (a) You up pick at oclock will eight.
• (b) I will picks you up at eight oclock.
• (c) I will pick you up at eight oclock.
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• Only (c) is grammatical (a) is word salad and
  (b) violates the English rule of subject- verb
  agreement.
•  

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• There is an important difference between the
  grammaticality of a sentence-- is it structurally
  well formed? and semantic well-formedness -- does
  it make sense?
• Below, (d) is structurally well formed but
  semantically odd. Compare (d) through (g).
•  
• (d) I just saw a unicorn playing a concerto on
  his horn.
• (e) Colourless green ideas sleeps furiously.
• (f) Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
• (g) Green furiously colourless sleep ideas.
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• Both (d) and (f) are grammatical. however, they
  are Semantically peculiar.

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Semantics

• Part of your linguistic competence has to do with
  your ability to determine the meaning of
  sentences.
• But your competence goes beyond this. You can
  determine when a sentence has more than one
  meaning.
• (a) Jack rolled over Jill.
• (b) Mary threw up her lunch.
• (c) Visiting martians can be a nuisance.
• (d) I saw her duck.
•  

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• You also know when different sentences mean the
  same thing.
• (a) John is an unmarried male.
• (b) John is a bachelor.

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Styles of speech

• You also understand the contexts or situations in
  which different styles of language may be used.