Language

Language is a structured system of communication consisting of speech, nonverbal gestures, and writing. It involves the arrangement of sounds into words and words into sentences according to complex grammatical rules. Language is critical for the formation of societies because it enables the people within them to communicate with one another. The study of language is referred to as linguistics, and those who study it are called linguists.

Overview

People throughout the world speak different languages. Most of these are based on geographical location. For example, most people in the United States speak English while those in France speak French. Scholars are unsure of the number of languages in the world but estimate it to be at least five thousand and possibly as many as seven thousand. Linguists divide these languages into about twenty groups based on their similarities. For example, Indo-European is a large group that contains the English language as well as at least four hundred other languages.

Scholars have been studying language acquisition, or how children learn language, since ancient times. They have determined that the first few years of life are critical for language acquisition. Many theories exist that attempt to explain how language is acquired. Some contend that children are genetically predisposed to learn language. According to other theories, however, children learn language mainly through observation and imitation.

Definition

Linguists struggle to precisely define language mainly because of its complexity. Most agree that language has a specific structure that is used for speech, writing, and body language. A language can also be conveyed in sign language, which communicates words and ideas using visual signs and gestures.

Humans are the only species on Earth able to acquire language. However, some animal and insect species can communicate. For example, birds vocalize sounds to warn of danger, attract a mate, and defend a territory. Dolphins communicate with one another by making clicking sounds and whistling. Chimps have learned to sign. Compared to a language, however, this communication is simple and limited. An animal’s brain is not comparable to that of a human being, and animals are also limited by their physical characteristics. Human language, on the other hand, is open-ended and capable of creating an infinite number of messages. Words can be arranged in various orders to change the meaning of a sentence. Human language also has displacement, meaning that words can be used to describe people and objects that are not present.

Linguistic Levels

Language has linguistic levels, with the phonological level being the most basic. In this level, some sounds have meaning. In the morpheme level, whole words have definitions. The next level is the syntactical, in which words are arranged into sentences that convey messages. The last level is the sociolinguistic. The language used in this level depends on a person’s age, gender, and social class.

Characteristics of Language

Language has characteristics that are essential for human communication. Language is (1) vocal, (2) arbitrary, (3) symbolic, (4) systematic, (5) social, (6) dynamic, and (7) unique.

Language is vocal because it consists of sounds that can be produced by the organs in the body that are responsible for speech. These sounds form words, which have meaning. Speech is primary, or necessary, for writing.

A language is arbitrary because the words in it have nothing to do with their meanings. For example, there is no explanation for why a child between the ages of one and four is called a “toddler” in the English language. Toddler is simply the word human beings chose to represent a child of this age. This arbitrariness enables the world to have thousands of languages. For example, a four-legged animal with a tail that is a human companion is called a “dog” in English. However, it is called “chien” in French, a “hund” in German, and a “kalb” in Arabic. If words were not arbitrary—if there was only one word for dog, for example—only one language would exist.

The symbolism of language relates to its arbitrariness. A symbol is something that stands for something else. In language, a word stands for an object, an idea, a feeling, a concept, and so on.

The symbols in language are arranged into systems. All languages have phonological and grammatical systems. Within these systems are various sub-systems. All these systems together simply mean that a language has rules. Words have a system. For example, the letters c and h can be used together to create a new sound. Many words in the English language begin with ch. However, while the letters d and z are in the English alphabet, they are not used together to produce a new sound. The combination dz appears within some words, but each letter makes a different sound.

Sentences also have systems, groups of rules that must be followed. For example, a sentence must have a noun and a verb. “In the shade” is not a sentence because it does not have a verb, whereas “I like to sit in the shade” is a sentence. It contains the infinitive form of the verb sit, which is “to sit.”

Language is social because it is used within a community or society. It enables people to communicate and interact with one another. Children are not born knowing a language although they may be genetically predisposed to learn one. Children learn the language spoken by their society, which may be English, French, German, or one of thousands of other languages. Experts contend that language is essential for a society or community. If language is not used within a society, the society will die out.

Language is dynamic, which means that it can change. New words are invented to explain new concepts. These words often have to do with technology. These words were invented in the twenty-first century: selfie, vlog, bing-watch, podcast, and bestie. Languages are unique in that they have distinctive characteristics and features.

Origins of Language

Scholars are not certain when the first languages were spoken but theorize that they coincide with human evolution. Homo sapiens, or early humans, lived around 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. Therefore, scholars believe that the first human languages, while primitive, were spoken around this time. In his published essay collection, Course in General Linguistics, the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) asserts that language began when human beings made a sound and associated it with a concept or meaning. Over time, these sounds and associations developed into early primitive languages.

Some commonalities exist among languages, which supports the linguistic theory that all languages descend from a common ancestral tongue. Linguists in the twenty-first century group the more than five thousand languages spoken throughout the world into as few as twenty groups. Languages within a group have in common some words, sounds, or grammatical constructions.

The largest linguistic group is the Indo-European, which is spoken by about half the world’s population. The more than four hundred languages within this group are spoken in Europe and in countries where Europeans settled. They are also spoken in South and Southeast Asia. In addition to English, the languages in this group include Greek, Latin, and German. These languages likely all stemmed from a language spoken by nomads in western Europe and Asia about 3000 BCE called Proto-Indo-European. By about 2000 BCE, variations of this language had spread throughout Europe and into Asia.

Another large language group is the Semitic, which emerged about 2000 BCE. It is believed to have descended from a language spoken by nomads in southern Asia. It spread throughout the Middle East and nearby areas and developed into the seventy-seven languages belonging to this group. Arabic, Hebrew, and Maltese are Semitic languages.

Dialect

A dialect is a variation of a language. The most common type of dialect is regional, in which people of a geographical area speak a language a certain way. Other types of dialect exist, however, including class dialect, which refers to language changes based on social class, and occupational dialect, which refers to changes to a language based on one’s job.

A dialect may refer to morphology, or the formation or words. It may also refer to syntax, or a set of words. These are some examples of dialect: tuckered out (tired); ya’ll (you all); dustbin (garbage can); shopping cart or buggy (grocery cart); howdy (hello); What’s poppin? (What’s going on?); and pop (soda).

Dialect differs from accent, which is simply how people in an area say a word. For example, in Boston, Massachusetts, people often pronounce the letter rand if it were w and say caw when they mean car. However, it is possible for people speaking a certain dialect to also have an accent.

Bilingualism

Bilingualism refers to the ability to use two languages in everyday life. Many children in the United States grow up exposed to two languages, especially if their parents immigrated to the United States from another country. Children who speak two languages from birth are called simultaneous bilinguals. Those who learn one language first and then a second language are called sequential bilinguals. People who speak just one language are called monolinguals. For people who are bilingual, the proficiency they have in each language depends on how often they are exposed to it.

Researchers believe bilingualism offers many cognitive benefits. People who speak two languages often develop a better attention span. They may be more skilled at quickly changing tasks. They may even have a better memory than monolinguals.

While it is easiest for young children to learn a second language, adults can also benefit from the experience. Research shows that learning a second language protects against Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. People’s brains function better when they are bilingual.

Viewpoints

The process by which human beings learn language is called language acquisition. Scientists agree that the first few years of life are a critical time for children to learn language. Learning acquisition happens most easily during these years and becomes more difficult as people grow and age. This explains why children can more easily learn a new language than adults.

The Nativity Theory

Whether language is at least in part innate or completely learned was once a subject of debate. The famous linguist Noam Chomsky (1928—) argued that children are born with a predisposition to learn language. In other words, a child’s brain is genetically wired to absorb a language. This is called the nativity theory of language acquisition. According to this theory, children have a language acquisition device (LAD) in their brain. Chomsky noted that children follow a pattern of word-learning that cannot be learned by observation. At first, they use a form of a word correctly, then make an error when using the word, and eventually use the word correctly again. He uses the word “give” as an example. A child may say “gave” (the past tense of the word) but later use the word “gived” or “gaven.” Eventually, the child will return to using the correct word, “gave.” According to Chomsky, children would not learn “gived” or “gaven” through observation. Rather, this step in the learning process occurs in a child’s brain.

While the LAD is not physical, research indicates that parts of the brain are responsible for language acquisition. Damage to these parts during the critical years can cause language acquisition to be slowed or hampered. For example, aphasia occurs if the left hemisphere of the brain is damaged. Depending on the type of aphasia, children may either have trouble forming language or interpreting it.

Supporters of the nativity theory also believe in a universal grammar that exists among most or all languages. For example, in most languages, sentences contain verbs and nouns. Most languages also have rules regarding the construction of phrases and clauses that enables language to be used to convey an infinite number of messages.

The Learning Theory

The learning theory also attempts to explain children’s language acquisition. Proponents of this theory, including American behaviorist B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), contend that children learn language solely by watching and learning from others. They are not genetically predisposed to language acquisition but learn language through observation and imitation, much the way they learn any other task such as using utensils to eat. When children begin to babble, they receive positive feedback from parents and caregivers. This occurs again once they begin to speak; they are praised for correctly using words. Most linguists in the twenty-first century find this theory problematic because it does not explain how children master the complexities of grammatical structures, which cannot be learned simply by observation. In 1957, Noam Chomsky published a criticism of this theory.

The Cognitive Theory

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980) proposed the cognitive theory of language acquisition. He believed that children needed to develop mentally before language acquisition can occur. He felt that a child needed to first understand a concept before acquiring language to name and describe it. His theory involves both assimilation and accommodation. According to Piaget, when children assimilate, they change their environment so that it fits into the mental structures that they have developed. When they accommodate, they change, or further develop, their mental structures to adapt to a new environment.

The Zone of Proximal Development Theory

The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1924) proposed the zone of proximal development (ZPD) theory. This refers to the difference between what a child knows and what the child has the potential to know. The zone is the space between what is known and what can be known. As a child’s language acquisition increases, the zone of proximal development decreases. Vygotsky believed that with guidance from adults and more capable peers, a child can better master more difficult language concepts (Vygotsky, 1978). This theory emphasizes the importance of social interactions of children’s language development.

In 2016, the pre-eminent American author Tom Wolfe wrote a book that disparaged Chomsky and questioned the validity of many of his theoretical findings concerning language development. In The Kingdom of Speech, one of Wolfe’s primary criticisms was that Chomsky had established a cult of personality among his many followers. This has stifled valid criticism of his ideas. Wolfe compared Chomsky’s following to a similar environment surrounding the theories of Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution. Wolfe suggested that both Chomsky and Darwin had heavily borrowed from other researchers without proper attribution. In questioning Chomsky’s linguistic theories, Wolfe wrote that neither Chomsky nor Darwin sufficiently considered the role other factors played in the development of species and language. One of these is heredity. The Kingdom of Speech was quick to garner retorts from many in the scientific community who felt that Wolfe's analysis was trite and riddled with inaccuracies.

About the Author

Adrienne Kennedy holds bachelor’s degrees in communications and secondary education from King’s College and a master’s degree in English from the University of Scranton. She is a former college instructor and has worked in educational publishing for more than twenty years. She is also a published author of both nonfiction and fiction.

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