What is Language and its Characteristics?

1. What is
Language?
University of the Punjab , Department
of English Language & Literature.
Lahore, Pakistan

2. LANGUAGE
A Skill
• Something we do
– He speaks well but
writes badly.
KNOWLEDGE
• Something we know
– I don’t know much
Italian.

3. LANGUAGE
A Possession
• Something we
have/possess
– I haven’t much French.
A Tool
• Something we use
– What words can I use to
describe her?

4. LANGUAGE
An Event
• Something which
happens
– I was in the office when
the conversation took
place.
A Group Identity
• Something which
transmits culture
– It is only through our
language that we can
truly express our identity.

5. LANGUAGE
An Object
• Something which we
can describe
– This language has a
complex structure.
A Living Organism
• Something which is
born, lives and dies
– Gradually a new
language was born.
– The 18th century saw a
flowering of the
language.
– That’s a dead language

6. LANGUAGE
• The most valuable
possession of man
• Difficult to think of a
society without
Language

8. Robins
• Language is A SYMBOL SYSTEM
– Based on Arbitrary conventions
• Infinitely EXTENDABLE & MODIFIABLE
– To changing needs and conditions of the speaker

9. Sapir
• Language is
A purely human & non-instinctive
– Method of communication
• Humans ---- species-specific, species-uniform
• Non-instinctive --- A child has to learn
Language of his society

10. Chomsky
• A Language is a
– SET OF SENTENCES
– Finite or infinite
• Each finite in length
– Constructed out of a finite set of elements.

12. 1. A Means of Communication

14. Common Code
Ideas
Emotions
Desire
Feelings
Beliefs
Shared by:
common code

15. Others Means of Communication
• Gesture
• Nods
• Winks
• Flags
• Smiles
• Horns
• Short-hand
• Dancing

16. Others Means of Communication
• Braille Alphabet
• Mathematical Symbols
• Morse Code
• Sirens
• Sketches
• Maps
• Acting
• Miming

17. Other System Vs. Language
• Extremely Limited
• Not Flexible
• Not Comprehensive
• Not Perfect
• Not Extensive

18. Language A Carrier
• It conveys/carries
»Human thoughts
»Philosophy
»Culture
»Civilization
• Shapes
»people’s thought
• Guides/control
»activities

19. Language is Ubiquitous
• Present
everywhere
– in all
activities
• As important as
the air we
breathe

20. Species-specific
• Only Humans are
blessed with
language
• Specific property of
humans
• Humans are called
talking animals

22. Language is Arbitrary
• No inherent/basic
relation between
the words of language
and their meanings

23. No reason why a female called:
• Woman
English
• Istree
Hindi
• Aurat
Urdu
• Zen
Persian
• Femine
French
• Selection of these words in
the language is purely
arbitrary, an accident of
history

24. Advantages of Language Arbitrariness
• Variety of Languages
• There would have
been only one
language
• Permits change
• Its conventionality
gives it stability

25. Onomatopoeia
• Words that imitate the
sounds they stand for:
– Bang
– Buzz
– Splash etc
• Such words do have some
relation with the meanings/
ideas they stand for
• Not completely intrinsic
relationship
– Kokla doo dle do

27. • Made up of vocal sounds
• Produced by Physiological articulatory mechanism

28. Speech Primary, Writing Secondary
• A child learns to speak first
– Writing comes much later
• A man speaks much more
– than he writes
• Writing
– Graphic representation of vocal sounds
– Letters K , Q /k/
• Total quantum of speech is > T.Q. written
material

29. Advantage of writing
• Pen is mightier
than the sword
• It could be
preserved in
books or record

30. Primacy of Speech over Writing
• Spoken words are
powerful
• Can be preserved:
– audio cassettes
– Tape recorders

31. Language

32. An organized combination of elements
• Small number of
meaningless elements
(sounds/words) in
combination produce a
large number of
meaningful elements
• These systems operate at
two levels:
– Phonological
– Syntactical

33. Phonological Level
• To form meaningful units/ words
• Sounds are arranged in certain established
systematic order
Cat /k t/
Act / k t/
Pat /p t/
Tap /t p/
Pack / p k/

34. Syntactical Level
• To frame acceptable meaningful sentences
– Words are arranged in particular system
– (grammatical/ structural rules)
‘(The hunter) (shot) (the tiger) (with a gun)’.
‘The tiger shot a gun with hunter the’.

36. A Form of social Behaviour
• A child picks up the
language of the social
set-up
• And learns to speak
community language
• A Chinese infant if
placed in an Indian
family
– Will easily learn to speak
an Indian language

38. A Symbol
• A concrete event,
object or mark
• Stands for something
relatively abstract

39. • Word are symbols
– stand for object
• Table
– wooden/glass board supported by
4/3 legs

40. Messages in form of symbols
• SPEAKER RECEIVER

41. 7. The Uniqueness of Human
Language
Human Language Vs.
Animal Communication

42. 1. Displacement
• To talk about things, places
• To create fiction
• To yoke future, past, present
( far away in space and time )

43. 2. Infinite Communication System
• Humans can
– Store knowledge
– Transfer it to next
generation
– Yoke the present,
past and future
• Animals have small
number of messages:
»Hunger
»Fear
»Anger

44. 3. Open-endedness
• Use language to say anything
– Produce new utterances
• A bee by its dance can convey
– Distance/ the direction of
nectar
• It cannot convey how good or
bad honey is

45. 4. Language is Flexible/OPEN-ENDED
– It is modifiable, Extendable
• It changes , grow
– New words’ addition
• Downloading, software, laser etc
• Animal communication system is closed
system
– A bee’s dance
– cock’s crow
– AS the same as that were 200 years ago

46. 5. Discreteness
• Clear
• Distinguishable
• Separate
• Identifiable symbols

47. 6. Structural Complexity
• English (RP variety) has 44 sounds
– Form thousands of words (475000)
• Millions of sentences
• Internal structure of sentence
• No complexity in monkey’s cry etc

48. 7. Non-instinctive Language
• Every human has to learn
language
– From parents/ society
• Human acquire language