Characteristics of Language

April 30, 2012

Okay this is important. This comes phrased in all sorts of strange ways but basically every year it comes.
So know this shit.

Language is Human – It is only spoken/written/used by humans for communication. The parrot doesn’t
know what he’s talking about. Don’t listen to him.

Language is verbal – it doesn’t matter whether it’s written or oral…words are still involved.

Arbitrary – there is no fixed association between the words in a language and the objects or ideas it
signifies or represents. Objects have different words in different languages. (book, libre, livre all mean
well…book, they all mean the same thing but they are different words.) Similarly the same word can
have different meanings in different languages (fag in American slang is a derogatory term for a
homosexual, in British slang it means a cigarette.)

Systematic – language is rule governed. It consists of rules and conventions that regulate the structure,
pronunciation and order of words. (eg. Rammstein makes German sound especially fucked up vs.
Especially Rammstein sound up German makes fucked).

Non-Instinctive – language has to be learnt. No one is born with the ability to speak any language
fluently…if they are, they’re probably alien spawn (or Asian). Kids learn a language through socialisation
within a group that speaks that language. The language we learn is culturally determined, not
biologically. You can be Spanish royalty, once you grow up in the Jamaican slums you’re most likely
gonna grow up calling people battyboy.

Maturational – words mature, they change in meaning and even in parts of speech. Take text for
example, once upon a time it was only a noun. Now it’s a noun and a verb. “yuh geh de tex(t) da Sunita
sen?” “wheyyy gyal ah forget dat ah need to tex(t) she back”. Yeah…it’s late…my examples are
suffering. Anyway, not only do words mature but so does the vocabulary of a person. As you grow older
you learn new words and alternate meanings of words and then suddenly the world isn’t innocent any
more (hey you! Wanna get a facial with me?).

Dynamic/Evolving – okay this is basically the same as the previous one. Things change. Another
example? Idiot comes from the Greek word idiotes meaning ‘a private individual’ now it means a
foolish person. Also think about how technology has affected the meanings of words; do you think two
hundred years ago they would have thought the word mouse to mean the same thing we know it as?
No. Because they didn’t have fucking computers, that’s why.