Some Definitions of Language+
what is linguistics ?
SECOND Week
How Language is Defined?
⚫ Aristotle
⚫ Speech is the representation of the
experience of the mind. According to
Aristotle, language is a speech sound
produced by human beings to express their
ideas, emotions, thoughts, desires, and
feelings.
⚫ According to Aristotle:
1. Only humans have the ability to use language.
2.Animals also use speech, but the degree to
use speech is different from humans.
Saussure
⚫ Saussure
⚫ Language is an arbitrary system of signs constituted of the signifier
and signified. In other words, language is first a system based on no
logic or reason, and
⚫ Secondly, the system covers both objects and expressions used
for objects.
⚫ Thirdly objects and expressions are arbitrarily linked.
⚫ And finally, expressions include sounds and graphemes used by
humans for generating speech and writing, respectively, for
communication.
Sapir
⚫ According to Sapir, language is a purely human and
non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions, and desires through a system of voluntarily
produced sounds.
⚫ The definition of Sapir expresses that language is mainly
concerned with only human beings and constitutes a system
of sounds produced by them for communication.
Bloomfield
⚫ Bloomfield’s definition of language focuses
on the utterances produced by all the
community’s people and hence overlooks
writing. Besides, he stresses form, not
meaning, as the basis of language.
Noam Chomsky
⚫ Noam Chomsky
⚫ A language is a set of (finite or infinite) sentences, each finite length constructed out of a limited set of
elements.
⚫ This definition of language considers:
1. sentences as the basis of a language.
2. Sentences may be limited or unlimited and are made up of only minor components.
3. a language is a system of rules that allows humans to generate an infinite number of sentences.
4. Chomsky's theory of generative grammar posits that all languages share a universal grammar, which is a set of
innate cognitive abilities that allow humans to acquire and use language. This universal grammar is said to be
responsible for the structure and organization of all languages.
What is linguistics?
⚫ Normal humans use language incessantly:
speaking, hearing, reading and writing.
They come into contact with tens of
thousands of words each day.
⚫ In recent years one of the fastest-
expanding branches of knowledge has
been linguistics- the systematic study of
language.
What is linguistics?
⚫ Linguistics, the scientific study
of language. The word was first used in
the middle of the 19th century to
emphasize the difference between a
newer approach to the study of language
that was then developing and the more
traditional approach of philology.
What is linguistics?
⚫ The philologist is concerned primarily with:
⚫ 1. the historical development of languages as it is
shown
⚫ 2. in written texts and
⚫ 3. in the context of the associated literature
and culture.
⚫ The linguist, though he may be interested in:
⚫ 1. written texts and
⚫ 2. in the development of languages through time,
3. tends to give priority to spoken languages and
to the problems of analysing them as they
operate at a given point in time.
Some Characteristics of the
linguistic study of language
⚫ 1. linguistics is the scientific study of language
⚫ A. Linguists claim that they are using means
and methods that qualify their study of
language to being referred to as scientific.
⚫ B. They see their approach as empirical,
methodical, exact and, consequently,
objective.
⚫ These characteristics are what distinguish
scientific study of language from unscientific
and / or non-scientific ones.
Some Characteristics of the
linguistic study of language
⚫ 2. Linguistics is descriptive
⚫ Modern study of language (qualifies as being different
from the traditional ways of studying language in that
it is a scientific study, primarily a descriptivist analysis
of language.
⚫ Traditional studies have been in their large part
prescriptivist. Prescriptivist studies focus on
differentiating correct usage from the incorrect one.
While descriptivist studies, on the opposite, focus on
reporting what native speakers of language say, just as
they hear it.
⚫ The scientific study of language claims that there is
nothing in the sounds themselves that would qualify
them as right or wrong.
What is linguistics?
⚫ Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
⚫ It tries to answer the following questions:
⚫ 1. what is language?
⚫ 2.what do all languages have in common?
⚫ 3. what range of variation is found among
languages?
⚫ 4. How does one write down and analyse an
unwritten language?
⚫ 5. why do languages change?
⚫ 6. To what extent are social class differences
reflected in language?
What is a linguist?
1.A linguist is a person who studies linguistics.
⚫ A more accurate word is ‘linguistician’
though it is too much of a tongue twister to
become generally accepted.
2. A Linguist also refers to someone who
knows a large number of languages.
⚫ But linguist in the sense of linguistics experts
need not be fluent in all languages, though
they must have a wide experience of
different types of language.
What is a linguist?
⚫ They are skilled, objective observers
rather than participants-consumers of
language rather than producers.
Linguistics vs Traditional grammar
⚫ 1. linguistics is descriptive, not
prescriptive.
Linguists are interested in what is said not
what they think ought to be said. They
describe language in all its aspects, but do
not prescribe rules. (like traditional
grammar does).
The language of a pop singer is not
intrinsically worse (or better) than that of a
duke.
Linguistics vs traditional grammar
⚫ 2. Linguists regards the spoken language
as primary, rather than the written.
They look first at the spoken word, which
preceded the written one.
They regard spoken and written forms as
belonging to different, though overlapping
systems, which must be analyzed separately:
the spoken first, then the written.
Linguistics vs traditional grammar
⚫ 3. linguistics does not force languages into a
Latin-based framework, for example
judgement on certain constructions have a
Latin origin.
⚫ Avoid ‘ split infinitives’ not ‘to humbly
apologize ‘
⚫ But ‘ to apologize humbly’ is better.
⚫ So split infinitive is wrong according to Latin.
⚫ Linguists reject the idea that split infinitive is
wrong , as it is unfair to judge one language
by the standards of another.
Linguistics vs traditional grammar
⚫ 4. linguists believe that each language
must be described separately, and must
never be forced into a framework devised
for another.
Scope of linguistics
⚫ Linguistics covers a wide range of topics and
its boundaries are difficult to define.
⚫ Phonetics : at the centre of the wheel,
⚫ It is the study of the human speech sounds
⚫ -about actual physical sounds, the raw
materials of the language.
⚫ Phonology: sound patterning
⚫ Syntax : arrangement and the form of the
words.
Scope of linguistics
⚫ Semantics : part of language which links
together the form of words and the
meaning, it is outside syntax.
⚫ Phonology, syntax and semantics are ‘the
bread and butter’ of linguistics. All they
make ‘grammar ‘ of a language.
Scope of linguistics
⚫ Pragmatics: deals with how speakers use
language in ways which cannot be
predicted from linguistic alone.
⚫ Psycholinguistics: the study of language
and mind
⚫ Sociolinguistics: the study of language and
society
⚫ Applied linguistics: the application of
linguistics to language teaching
Scope of linguistics
⚫ Computational linguistics: the use of
computers to stimulate language and its
workings
⚫ Stylistics: the study of language and
literature
⚫ Anthropological linguistics: the study of
language in cross-cultural settings
⚫ Philosophical linguistics: the link between
language and logical thought.
