Language across curriculum

Unit A

Meaning and nature of language

Q. 1. Discuss the nature of language and explain how it is learnt. Cite

Ans. Language is the most important phenomenon in the world. From birth to death,
all our activities are regulated by language. The human knowledge and culture is
stored and transmitted in language. Thinking is only possible through language. In
our dreams, we make use of language. Language dominates every aspect of human
life. In fact, it is a yardstick to separate us from other beings. Language is a mean of
communication. With the help of language, we can express our thoughts and feelings
to others. Without language, society would be impossible.

SOME DEFINITIONS OF LANGUAGE:

1. Oxford English Dictionary defines language as Words and the methods of

2. According to Allen, Language is a mean of communicative thoughts.

3. According to Bolinger, Language is species specific.

4. According to H.A. Gleason, Language is one of the most important and

5. According to Ben Jonson, Language most shows a man, speak that I may see
thee.

6. Leonard Bloomfield says, Each community is formed by the activity of

MEANING

Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly
the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system. The
scientific study of language is called linguistics. Questions concerning the philosophy of
language, such as whether words can represent experience, have been debated
since Gorgias and Plato in Ancient Greece. Thinkers such as Rousseau have argued that
language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from
rational and logical thought. 20th-century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that
philosophy is really the study of language. Major figures in linguistics include Ferdinand de
Saussure and Noam Chomsky.
Estimates of the number of languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. However,
any precise estimate depends on a partly arbitrary distinction between languages
and dialects. Natural languages are spoken or signed, but any language can
be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli for example,
in whistling, signed, or braille. This is because human language is modality-independent.
Depending on philosophical perspectives regarding the definition of language and meaning,
when used as a general concept, "language" may refer to the cognitive ability to learn and
use systems of complex communication, or to describe the set of rules that makes up these
systems, or the set of utterances that can be produced from those rules. All languages rely
on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings. Oral, manual and tactile
languages contain a phonological system that governs how symbols are used to form
sequences known as words or morphemes, and a syntactic system that governs how words
and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances.
Human language has the properties of productivity and displacement, and relies entirely on
social convention and learning. Its complex structure affords a much wider range of
expressions than any known system of animal communication. Language is thought to have
originated when early hominins started gradually changing their primate communication
systems, acquiring the ability to form a theory of other minds and a shared intentionality.[1]
[2]
This development is sometimes thought to have coincided with an increase in brain
volume, and many linguists see the structures of language as having evolved to serve
specific communicative and social functions. Language is processed in many different
locations in the human brain, but especially in Broca's and Wernicke's areas.
Humans acquire language through social interaction in early childhood, and children
generally speak fluently when they are approximately three years old. The use of language
is deeply entrenched in human culture. Therefore, in addition to its strictly communicative
uses, language also has many social and cultural uses, such as signifying
group identity, social stratification, as well as social grooming and entertainment.
Languages evolve and diversify over time, and the history of their evolution can
be reconstructed by comparing modern languages to determine which traits their ancestral
languages must have had in order for the later developmental stages to occur. A group of
languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family. The Indo-
European family is the most widely spoken and includes languages as diverse
as English, Russian and Hindi; the Sino-Tibetan family, which includes Mandarin, Bodo and
the other Chinese languages, and Tibetan; the Afro-Asiatic family, which
includes Arabic, Somali, and Hebrew; the Bantu languages, which include Swahili, and Zulu,
and hundreds of other languages spoken throughout Africa; and the Malayo-Polynesian
languages, which include Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog, and hundreds of other languages
spoken throughout the Pacific. The languages of the Dravidian family that are spoken mostly
in Southern India include Tamil and Telugu. Academic consensus holds that between 50%
and 90% of languages spoken at the beginning of the 21st century will probably have
become extinct by the year 2100.

NATURE OF LANGUAGE:
1. Language is learnt: Learning of language is not an automatic process. Of course, it is
a behaviour but it is not type of behaviour like walking and crawling that comes to child in
natural way. Language by imitation and practice. Language is not possible without effort.
2. Language is related to the culture of society: Every language is related to culture of
society to which it belongs. The culture of the people naturally influences the language.
Every language is the product of society. We cannot separate language from the culture in
which that language exists. It has meaning only in relation to that society and culture.
3. Language is species specific: Language is species specific. Only human beings
have got the gift of language. Of course, the other species do communicate but only human
beings can make use of language.
4. Language is species uniformed: Language is species uniformed. All human children
are capable of acquiring any language natively if they are provided the right kind of
environment.
5. Language is a system: Each language is a unique system. The system of language
consists of sounds, structures and vocabulary. A person who wants to learn a new language
will have to learn new sounds, new structures and new vocabulary. The sound system of
language differs from language to language depending upon the culture to which a language
belongs. Each language has its own system of vocabulary. Thus each language is
systematic.
6. Language is a system of systems: Each language is a system of systems. There are
phonological and grammatical systems in all languages. There are several sub systems with
in a language. The phonology of a language forms its own system as the various sounds
function in a systematic way.
7. Language is a system of symbols: Each language works through symbols. Different
words used in a language are the symbols. They stand for certain things. The language will
function well if its symbols are known both to the speaker and the person for whom they are
being used.
For example the world cup has three sounds (K, , P) It is a symbol of English because a
meaning is attached to it. But if we take the same three sounds like, K, , P they do form
Puc, but that is not a symbol of English language as no meaning is attached to it.
8. Symbols of language are vocal: Different symbols are used in a single language.
These symbols are vocal. A language system does not exist in a vacuum. It is primary used
in speech. Only speech provides all essential signals of a language. There are other kinds of
symbols which cannot be called vocal symbols. For example, gestures and signal flags are
visual symbols and ringing of the bells and beating of a drum are auditory symbols. They do
not form any language. In language the sounds are produced through vocal organs. Reading
and writing are no doubt important. But speech is the basic form of language. A language
without speech is unthinkable.
9. Language is a skill subject: Learning of a language is a skill subject. It is skill like
swimming and cycling. We can not learn swimming or cycling just by studying rules. We can
learn it by practice. In the same way, we can learn a language y constant practice of that
language. So a lot of repetition for major linguistic skills like listening, speaking, reading and
writing is required.
10. Language is for communication: Language is the best means of communication and
self expressions. Human beings express their ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions
through language. In this way language is a means to connect past present and future.
11. Governed by a particular set of rules: Each language is governed by a particular set
or rules. For example English is S.V.O. language. In forming sentence, we put subject, then
verb and after verb we put object.
For example
He killed a snake.
Subject Verb Object
On the other hand, Hindi is S.O.V. language. First we put subject, he object and after object,
we put verb.
]sanao saaMp maara .
Subject Object Verb
12. Symbols of language are Arbitrary: Here by arbitrary symbols we meant that there is
no visual relationship between the language item and the object for which it stands. A man is
called man traditionally. There is no visual similarity between the symbol man and the actual
man. We have not named it so on the basis of some logic or scientific principles. In English
we say man, in Hindi we say manauYya and in Punjabi we say ___________. None of
them is better than the other. In fact, we call a man man because people have agreed to
use it in that sense.
13. Language is unique: Each language is unique because it has its own style of
functioning. The sounds, vocabulary and structures of every language have their own
specialty.

UNIT A TOPIC 2
Language as system of signs