LANGUAGE

Language is the representation of the experience of the mind. (Aristotle)

 It is a system of sounds, words, patterns, etc…, by humans to communicate thoughts

and feelings.
 Language is one of the most basic human urges to communicate and it is the means of
communication.

There are two major functions of the language: Interactional Function and Transactional
Function.
 Interactional Functions of language is to do with how humans use language to
interact with each other for the purpose of maintaining social rapport between people
and to build and maintain social relationship.
 Transactional Functions of a language uses human linguistic abilities to
communicate knowledge, skills and information.

Language is not only a human phenomenon. Animals cry, hoot, bleat, coo, dance, sing… to
communicate their messages. But human language is more complex and sophisticated form
of communication. No animal communication matches or even remotely comes close to the
variety, complexity and creativity of human language. Therefore, Language is
 One of the most basic of human urges.
 Need to communicate.
 Human beings cannot but communicate.
 Means of communication.

Sounds are the basic units of language. But not sounds in themselves or in a jumble. Sounds
have to be meaningful. They acquire meaning when they organize themselves intelligible
combinations and forms.

SOUNDS – FORMS – MEANING are the three components of language and gives us an
intelligible, sensible structure to understand the world around us. These three components, in
fact, represent the three fundamental dimensions of the organisation as well as the three
levels of analysis of language: Phonological, Syntactic and semantic.
 Phonological Level: Sounds and their organisation
 Syntactic Level: Forms and their organisation
 Semantic Level: Meaning as manifested at the phonological and syntactic levels.
Wherever human exist, language exists. Spoken language developed well before written
language, i.e. spoken language pre-dates written language. There are no primitive languages;
all languages are equally complex and equally capable of expressing any idea in the universe.
No language is good or bad, superior or inferior, in this sense. Languages are different. That
is all, and languages changes through time. It is dynamic.

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FEATURES OF HUMAN LANGUAGE

1. Language is a system: It is system of systems. Language is not a collection of sounds

and forms at random, but a highly organised system in which each unit has its place
and value. Each sound is related to other sounds, each word is related other words to
make meaning.
2. Arbitrariness: Human language is an arbitrary phenomenon. There is no natural
connection or relationship between a word and its meaning. The signifier and the
signified are brought together arbitrarily.
3. Duality of Structure: Human language is organised at two levels simultaneously; at
the level of individual sounds like n, b, t, i…but none of these individual sounds has
any meaning in themselves. Their meaning comes from meaningful combinations to
produce words.
4. Displacement: Human language can be used to refer to any dimension of space and
time. We can use language to refer to the past, the present and the future. It can also
be used to refer to any place here and elsewhere. In neither case does the language
user have to move from his her place to refer to time or place.
5. Meta-linguistic: Human language can be used to talk about itself, its features,
functions, varieties and levels of sophistications.
6. Cultural Transmission: Human beings may be born with innate predisposition to
acquire language, but they are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a
specific language. Language is not genetically transmitted. It is culturally transmitted
and has to be consciously learned.
E.g.: A child with genetic features from its natural parents (e.g. Bhutanese) will learn the
language or the culture of its adopting parents (e.g. Spanish). This example clearly
supports the idea that language is culturally transmitted.
7. Open-ended system: the sounds, words and sentences in a language may be limited,
but the combinations and constructions are unlimited. This creative or productive
potential of the language enables its user to manipulate and make an infinite variety of
constructions to express himself or herself.
8. Human language is species specific and species uniform: language is specific to the
human of the species and all human beings are capable of learning the language in
which they are born.
9. Language is an individual and social phenomenon: Language serves to express
needs and urges. It also brings an individual into relationship with the external world.

Theories of Language Acquisition

Behaviourist Theory (Environmental Influence on language acquisition)

Environment greatly influences the language acquisition of the children according to BF

Skinner. He believed that language is acquired through, the process of association or relating,
imitation or copying and reinforcement.
 Association: Children learn words by associating (connecting) sound with object,
action and events.
 Imitating: They also learn words by imitating others that includes, the adults, friend
and at times even their baby-sitter.
 Reinforcement: Language is learned through constant reinforcement.

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Behaviourist believes that children when born are empty slates, with regard to vocabulary
(words) and structures but, as they grow they are constantly exposed to the new language
around them and the environment. The child born with an empty slate and language items are
written on that mental slate as the child grows and experiences the world to which it is
exposed.
Language learning would be difficult if the children do not interact with the social system
because language is learned through constant reinforcement and use.

Rationalist Theory (Biological Influence on language acquisition)

The main proponent of the view that biological influences brings about language
development is the well-known linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky argues that human brains
have a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) an innate mechanism or process that allows
children to develop language skills. According to this view, all children are born with
universal grammar, which makes them receptive to the common features of all languages.
Because of this hard-wired background in grammar, children easily pick up a language when
they are exposed its sophisticated process. The child is born with all the facilities to learn the
language. The linguistic ability is inherent in the mind of the child. All that the child does is
discover and test.

Evidence for an innate human ability to acquire language skills comes from the following
observations:
The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children,
even though different children experience very different environments.
Children’s language development follows a similar pattern across cultures.
Children generally acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly.
Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their own
language. These new languages resemble each other in sentence structure, even when
they are created in different cultures.
The only thing the children are doing during their learning is that they are testing their
linguistic ability to learn language through social interaction.

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