Language

I

Introduction

Language, communication among human beings that is characterized by the use of arbitrary spoken or written symbols with agreed-upon meanings. More broadly, language may be defined as communication in general; it is regarded by some linguists as a form of knowledge, that is, of thought or cognition.

II

Approaches to Language

Language can be studied from at least two points of view: its use or its structure. Language use is the concern of scholars in many fields, among them linguistics (in particular sociolinguistics), literature, communications, speech and rhetoric, sociology, political science, and psychology. Examined in studies of language use are what humans say, what they say they are thinking, and what they mean by what they write and say to one another. Included are content analysis and criticism of literature, studies of the history and changes of meaning of words, and descriptions of the social factors that determine what appropriate speech behaviour is. The fields of speech and rhetoric include studies of the ways in which language can influence behaviour. For literary specialists, language consists of words arranged to produce a logical or harmonious effect. For lexicographers, it is an inventory of vocabulary, including the meanings, origins, and histories of words. Language is also the particular way words are selected and combined that is characteristic of an individual, a group, or a literary genre.

Language structure is the concern of linguistics. Within the field of linguistics the definitions of language vary, and linguists differ in approach according to the definition they use. Those who study language as written communication are interested in the structure of what they call “text”—how sentences and their parts are organized into coherent wholes—and concerned with how one language can be accurately translated into another. In the field of machine translation, computers handle the vast amount of data needed for such studies. Comparative linguists seek to identify families of languages descended from a common ancestor.

Structural and descriptive linguists view spoken language as having a hierarchical structure of three levels: sounds, sound combinations (such as words), and word combinations (sentences). At the phonemic level, sounds are analysed; at the morphemic level, the combination of sounds into meaningful units of speech (morphemes, that is, word-building units) is described; and at the syntactic level, the combination of words in sentences and clauses is the focus. See also Morphology; Phonetics; Phonology; Semantics.

Transformational generative grammarians are linguists who define language as knowledge. They study both the nature of the human capacity to acquire language and the language acquisition process in their quest to describe the grammar of a language or languages.

III

Animal and Human Communication

The study of language as a means of expression or communication necessarily includes the study of gestures and sounds. Considering that animals gesture and make sounds, do animals as well as humans have language? It seems clear that many species communicate; human as distinct from animal communication, however, has been characterized by some scholars as unique in having the following seven features: (1) Human languages have separate, interrelated systems of grammar and of sound and gesture. (2) They allow new things to be communicated all the time. (3) Humans make a distinction between the content that is communicated and their labels for that content. (4) In human communication, spoken language is interchangeable with language that is heard. (5) Human languages are used for special purposes; intent lies behind what is communicated. (6) What is communicated can refer to the past and the future, not just the present. (7) Humans are born with the ability to learn, and then teach, any language, unlike some animals whose communication systems are with them from birth.

Some convincing recent research in teaching American Sign Language (AMESLAN) to primates, and other experiments where chimpanzees used computers and voice synthesizers to produce basic sentences, indicate, however, that a number of these features may not be uniquely human. Nonetheless, it seems safe to say that although language as a system of communication is not uniquely human, human language nevertheless has unique characteristics. Humans string together discrete signs and units of grammar to form an infinite set of never-before heard, thought, read, or signed sentences. The linguist Noam Chomsky introduced the idea that children are born with an innate knowledge of complex grammatical rules (universal grammar) that they apply to the language they are exposed to. See also Animal Behaviour.

IV

Essentials for Speech

For human language to be possible, certain factors are necessary. These factors are physiological (the body must be capable of producing the sounds of speech), grammatical (the speech must have structure); and semantic (the mind must be capable of dealing with the meanings of what is spoken).