Download Introduction: - What is language? Everybody knows the answer to

Introduction:
- What is language? Everybody knows the answer to this question but nobody
has so far been able to come out with any standard definition that fully explain
the term language.
- It is a situation like trying to define the term LIFE. Everybody knows what life is
but no one cannot present a SATISFACTORY definition of life.
- In order to understand a term like “Life”, one has to talk of the properties or
characteristic of living beings (e.g. growth, mortality, nutrition)
- Similarly, the term language can be understood better in terms of its
PROPERTIES OR CHARACTERISTICS.
- Some linguists however have been trying to define language in their OWN
WAY even though all their definitions are far from satisfactory.
- Here are some definitions:
1. Language is a symbol system based on pure or arbitrary conventions. . .
infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and
conditions of the speaker. (Robins, 1985)
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According to this definition, language is a symbol system. Every language
(that exists in the written form) selects some symbols for its selected sounds.
It has a corresponding symbol.
Ex: for the sound /k/, In English we have the symbol k and in Hindi we
have another symbol. These symbols form the alphabet of the language and
join in different combinations (according to a well laid out system) to form
meaningful words.
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The system talked of here is purely arbitrary in the sense that there is no one
to one correspondence between the structure of a word and the thing it
stands for. The combination of letters p.e.n for example stands, in English,
for an instrument used for writing. Why it could not be e.p.n or n.e.p.?
Correspondence – no connection
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Well, it could also be e.p.n or n.e.p and there is nothing sacrosanct about the
combination p.e.n except that it has now become a convention – a convention
that cannot be easily changed.
Sacrosanct - untouchable
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As stated here, language conventions are not easily changed, yet it is
impossible to do so. Language is infinitely modifiable and extendable –
Words go on changing meanings and new words continue to be added to
language with the changing needs of the community using it.
Ex: Shakepeare, for example, used the word stomach to mean courage.
Similarly words like laser, sputnik, and astronaut are of quite recent origin in
the English Language.
2. Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions and desires by means of system of voluntarily produced symbols.
(Sapir, 1921)
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Human – Only humans possess language and all normal humans uniformly
possess it. Animals do have a communication system but it is not a
developed system. That is why language is said to be species-specific and
species-uniform
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Non-instinctive - Language does not pass from a parent to a child. A child
has to learn language and he/she learns the language of the society he/she is
placed in.
3. Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each
other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols. (Hall, 1969)
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Language is primarily speech produced by oral (spoken)-auditory(heard)
symbols.
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A speaker produces some string of oral sounds that get conveyed through the
air to the listener who, through his hearing organs, receives the sound waves
and conveys these to the brain that interprets these symbols to arrive at a
meaning.
4. A language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and
constructed out of a finite set of elements. (Noam Chomsky, 1957)
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Chomsky meant to convey that each sentence has a structure. Human brain
is competent enough to construct different sentences from out of the limited
set of sounds/symbols belonging to a particular language. Human brain is so
productive that a child can at any time produce a sentence that has never
been said or heard earlier.
5. A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human
communication. (Wardaugh, 1972)
6. A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social
group cooperates. (Bloch and Trager, 1942)
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Both the definitions 5 and 6 above prominently point out that language is a
system. Sounds join to form words according to a system. (Same as No. 1)
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Ex: Words join to form sentences according to some system. Cricket is a
game of glorious uncertainties is acceptable but one cannot accept a string of
words like: a game is of cricket uncertainties glorious. It is in this sense that
language is said to be a system of system.
7. Language is undoubtedly a kind of means of communication among human
beings. It consists primarily of vocal sounds. It is articulatory, systematic,
symbolic and arbitrary. (Derbyshire, 1967)
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Derbyshire, while accepting that language is the property of
human beings and that it is primarily speech, brings out the point that is an
important means of communication amongst humans.
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Before the start of civilization, man might have used the language of signs,
but it must have had a very limited scope.
Other definitions:
8. Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means
which human beings, as member of a social group and participants in its culture,
communicate. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
9. Languages are the principal systems of communication used by particular groups
of human beings within the particular society (linguistic community) of which they
are members. (Lyons, 1970)
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It is clearly evident from all these definitions, none of which completely defines the
term “language”, that it is not possible to have a single definition that brings out all
the properties of language. On the basis of these definitions, one can, however, list
out the various characteristics of language. It would, therefore, be better to list these
characteristics and discuss them in detail.
Characteristic of Language:
1. Language is a means of communication
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a very important means of communication between humans. It gives shape
to people’s thoughts, and guides and controls their entire activity.
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Language is a very important means of communication between humans. A
can communicate his or her ideas, emotions, beliefs or feelings to B as they
share a common code that makes up the language.
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No doubt there are many other means of communication used by humans,
e.g. gestures, nods, winks, smiles, horns, sirens, and so on. But all these
systems of communication are extremely limited, or they too, in turn, depend
language only. They are not so flexible, perfect or extensive as language.
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Language is so important a form of communication between humans that it is
difficult to think of a society without language.
2. Language is Arbitrary
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in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words of a
language and their meanings or the ideas conveyed by them. There is no
reason why a female adult human being be called a woman in English, istree
in Hindi, aurat in Urdu, etc.
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It may be noted that had language not been arbitrary, there would have been
one language in the world.
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The arbitrary nature of language permits or presupposes change, but such
changes do not normally take place. Therefore, while language is arbitrary
which permits change, its conventionality gives it stability meaning, we can
not change it because the whole society has accepted it.
3. Language is a System of Systems/duality
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Language is not disorganized or chaotic combination of sounds. Sounds are
arranged in certain fixed or established, systematic order to form meaningful
units or words. Similarly, words are also arranged in a particular system to
frame acceptable meaningful sentences.
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Ex: Every human child has to master the conventions (acceptable meaningful
sentences) of the language he or she learns before being able to
successfully communicate with other members of the social group in which he
or she is placed.
4. Language is Primarily Vocal (speech)
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Language is made up of vocal sounds only, produced by a physiological
articulatory mechanism in the human body.
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Writing must have
come later, as an intelligent attempt to represent vocal sounds.
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Speech is primary,
writing is secondary. Though writing did have one advantage over speech, it
could be preserved in books or records. But with the invention of magnetic
tapes or audio-cassettes, it has lost that advantage too.
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The letter k or q
represents only the /k/ sound. Graphic symbols had to be invented for the
sake of some sounds. There are a number of languages which continue to
exist, even today, in the spoken form only. They do not have a written form.
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Before, man speaks
much more than he writes.
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A child learns to
speak first , writing comes much later.
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The total quantum of
speech is much larger than the total quantum of written materials.
5. Language differs from Animal Communication in Several Ways- Language is
primarily human. It is human alone that possess language and use it for
communication. Language is, in that sense, species-specific – it is specific only to
one set of species. Also, all human beings uniformly possess language. Thus,
language is species-uniform.
Animal communication differs from human communication in the following ways:
a) Language can convey a large number, rather than infinite set, of messages
whereas the number of messages conveyed through the communication
system of animals is very limited.
Ex: Animals are able to convey to their fellow animals if they are hungry or
afraid. A bee, by its dance, is able to convey the distance or the direction of
the source of nectar, but it cannot convey how good or bad this honey is.
b) Language makes use of clearly distinguishable discrete, separately
identifiable symbols while animal communication system are often continuous
or non-discrete.
Ex: One can clearly distinguish between /k/, /ae/ and /t/ in the word cat, but
one cannot identify different discrete symbols in the long humming sound that
a bee produces or the “bow-wow” sound of a dog.
c) Animal communication system are closed systems that permit of no change,
modification or addition. A bee’s dance or cock’s crow is today the same that
it was 200 years ago. It is not so in the case of language. Language is
changing, growing every day , and new words continue to be added to it in
the course of time. Words like sputnik, laser, video, software did not, for
example, exist anywhere in English language 300 years ago. Language is
thus open ended, modifiable and extendable.
d) Human language is far more structurally complex than animal communication.
English, for example, has 44 sounds that join in different groups to form
thousand of words. These words can be arranged into millions of sets to
frame different sentences. Each sentence has its own internal structure.
There is no such structural complexity in a lamb’s bleating (complain) or a
monkey’s cry.
e) Human language is non-instinctive in the sense that every human child has to
learn language from his elders or peers in society. This process of learning
plays an important part in the acquisition of language. On the other hand,
bees acquire their skill in dancing as humans acquire the skill to walk. Their
knowledge is inherited, inbuilt. It is not so in the case of human beings who
have to learn a language.
f) Displacement – Animal communication, as in the case of communication
system in birds, dogs, monkeys, insects, etc. is limited to or related to their
immediate time and place, here and now or near about. It does not contain
any information about the past or the future or about the events taking place
in the distant multidimensional set-up.
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When a dog barks, you understand the message as relating to your
immediate present and place at the moment. It can tell you where it was two
days ago or where it would be in the evening or what it was up to in the next
few minutes.
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Human language users are capable if producing messages pertaining to the
present, past or future, near or distant places.
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Ex: I was 200 km north of Sayangan last month but will be deep down in the
south of Mankayan next week.- This property is called displacement – It
allows the users of language to talk about things and events which are not
present in the immediate environment of the speaker. Animal communication
lack this property. They may have but limited.
6. Language is a Form of Social Behaviour – Language has to be learnt. A Chinese
infant if placed in an Indian Family, will easily learn to speak an Indian language. He
or she picks up the language of the social set-up in which he or she grows.
Language is thus a form of social behavior.
7. Language is a symbol system – A symbol is a concrete event, object or mark that
stands for something relatively abstract. The cross, is a symbol that stands for the
great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is also a symbol of a Christian.
8. Productivity – Language is creative and productive in the sense that a user of
language does not always produce only sentences that he has heard or learnt
previously. On the basis of his knowledge of the grammar and syntax of language,
he can always produce new sentences, write new poems, etc. He can produce an
infinite number of sentences as per eventuality that he is facing .
9. Interchangeability – It permits a speaker to become a listener and vice versa
without impairing the function of language i.e communication. It can also be called
reciprocity where any speaker/sender can also be a listener/receiver.
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1. Robins – According to this definition, language is a symbol