Teaching Documents by Malaika Tanveer
Linguistics, 2024
Language is a very important means of communication between humans. They can communicate their id... more Language is a very important means of communication between humans. They can communicate their ideas, emotions, beliefs or feelings to each other as they share a common code that makes up the language. Language is ubiquitous in the sense that it is present everywhere in all activities. It is as important as the air we breathe and is the most valuable possession of man. In the scheme of things, all humans are blessed with language and it is the specific property of humans only. Language is thus species-specific and species-uniform. It is because of the use of language that humans are called "talking animals" (Homo loquens). In order to understand a term like life, one has to talk of the properties or characteristics of living beings (e.g. motion, reproduction, respiration, growth, power of self-healing, excretion,nutrition, mortality, etc. etc.). Similarly, the term language can be understood better in terms of its properties or characteristics. Language is a very complex human phenomenon; all attempts to define it have proved inadequate. In a nutshell , language is an 'organised noise' used in actual social situations.That is why it has also been defined as 'contextualised systematic sound'. Some linguists, however, have been trying to define language in their own ways. In the words of R.H.Robins "Language is a symbol system based on pure or arbitrary conventions... infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speakers" According to this definition, language is a symbol system. Every Language (that exists in the written form) selects some symbols for its selected sounds. For the sound /k/, in English we have the symbol k. These symbols form the alphabet of the language and join in different combinations to form meaningful words. The system talked of here is purely arbitrary in the sense that there is no one to one correspondence between the structure of a word and the thing it stands for. The Combination p.e.n, for example stands, in English, for an instrument used for writing.As stated here, language conventions are not easily changed, yet it is not impossible to do so.Language is infinitely modifiable and extendable. Words go on changing meanings and new words continue to be added in language with the changing needs of the community using it. Edward Sapir states that "Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols" Language, as Sapir rightly said, is human. Only humans possess language and all normal humans uniformly possess it. Animals do have a communication
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Teaching Documents by Malaika Tanveer