In the biblical fable, God—seeing that people of the earth had become skilled in construction and had decided to build an idolatrous tower, indeed an entire city, in ancient Mesopotamia that stretched to the heavens—infused the human race with a myriad of tongues so that they could no longer communicate, and could no longer build a massive edifice that would replace the almighty. If the tale is apocryphal, its meaning is not, as Deutscher notes:.
How else could this instrument make so much out of three dozen measly morsels of sound? In themselves, these configurations of the mouth—But, if you run these sounds "through the cogs and wheels of the language machine," says Deutscher, arrange them in some special way and define how they are be ordered by rules of grammar , you suddenly have language, something that an entire group of people can understand and use to communicate—and indeed to function and a viable society.
If language's mysterious origin sheds little light on its meaning, it can be helpful to turn to Western society's most renowned—and even controversial— linguist : Noam Chomsky. Chomsky is so famous that an entire subfield of linguistics the study of language has been named after him.
But, perhaps Chomsky's most relevant work for a discussion on language is his paper, " On the Nature of Language. In other words, language is all at once a tool and the mechanism that determines how we relate to the world, to each other, and, even to ourselves. Language, as noted, is what makes us human.
Famed American poet and existentialist, Walt Whitman, said that language is the sum total of all that humans experience as a species:. Language, then, is the sum of all human experience since the beginning of humankind. Without language, humans would be unable to express their feelings, thoughts, emotions, desires, and beliefs. Without language, there could be no society and possibly no religion.
Even if God's wrath at the building of the Tower of Babel led to a plethora of tongues throughout the world, the fact is that they are still tongues, languages that can be deciphered, studied, translated, written, and communicated.
As computers communicate with humans—and with each other—the meaning of language may soon change. Computers "talk" through the use of programming language. Like human language, computer language is a system of grammar, syntax, and other rules that allow humans to communicate with their PCs, tablets, and smartphones, but also allows computers to communicate with other computers. As artificial intelligence continues to advance to a point where computers can communicate with each other without the intervention of humans, the very definition of language may need to evolve also.
Language will still always be what makes us human, but it may also become the tool that allows machines to communicate, express needs and wants, issue directives, create, and produce through their own tongue. A specific place? Perhaps a building that could also be called a house? Images of people or another time? Still, even though your mental image of home may be quite distinct from mine, we can communicate effectively.
You understand that each sentence has a subject and verb, and a certain pattern of word order, even though you might not be consciously aware of that knowledge. The family, group, or community wherein you were raised taught you the code. The code came in many forms.
When is it appropriate to communicate? If it is appropriate, what are the expectations and how do you accomplish it? You know because you understand the code. Does everyone on earth speak the same language? Obviously, no. People are raised in different cultures, with different values, beliefs, customs, and different languages to express those cultural attributes. Even people who speak the same language, like speakers of English in London, New Delhi, or Cleveland, speak and interact using their own words that are community-defined, self-defined, and have room for interpretation.
Within the United States, depending on the context and environment, you may hear colorful sayings that are quite regional, and may notice an accent, pace, or tone of communication that is distinct from your own. This variation in our use of language is a creative way to form relationships and communities, but can also lead to miscommunication. Words themselves, then, actually hold no meaning. It takes you and me to use them to give them life and purpose.
Even if we say that the dictionary is the repository of meaning, the repository itself has no meaning without you or me to read, interpret, and use its contents. Words change meaning over time. The dictionary entry for the meaning of a word changes because we change how, when, and why we use the word, not the other way around. Do you know every word in the dictionary? Does anyone? These are known as free morphemes because they can exist on their own.
Within the category of bound morphemes, there are two additional subtypes: derivational and inflectional. Derivational morphemes change the meaning or part of speech of a word when they are used together. Lexemes are the set of inflected forms taken by a single word. Syntax is a set of rules for constructing full sentences out of words and phrases.
Every language has a different set of syntactic rules, but all languages have some form of syntax. In English, the smallest form of a sentence is a noun phrase which might just be a noun or a pronoun and a verb phrase which may be a single verb. Adjectives and adverbs can be added to the sentence to provide further meaning. Word order matters in English, although in some languages, order is of less importance.
Context is how everything within language works together to convey a particular meaning. Context includes tone of voice, body language, and the words being used.
Depending on how a person says something, holds his or her body, or emphasizes certain points of a sentence, a variety of different messages can be conveyed. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. Introduction to Language. Introduction to Language Language is the ability to produce and comprehend spoken and written words; linguistics is the study of language.
Learning Objectives Describe the key properties and features of language. Key Takeaways Key Points Grammar is a set of rules for generating logical communication. Every language has a lexicon, or the sum total of all the words in that language. Phonetics and phonemics are the study of individual units of sound in languages.
Morphology is the study of words and other meaningful units of language. Syntax is the study of sentences and phrases, and the rules of grammar that sentences obey. Semantics is the study of sentence meaning; pragmatics is the study of sentence meaning in context. Key Terms lexicon : The sum total of all words in a language.
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