Running head: Criteria’s of defining languages

Criteria’s of defining languages

Jamal Ajmal

BBA-|| / G

Submitted to: Hassan Gerdezi

Lahore School of Economics

Running head: Criteria’s of defining languages

Language is actually communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary

signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. Language, dialect, style, register are

the various terms we use to refer to the ways of speaking. These all are grouped to a neutral term

called linguistic variety.

There are two main criteria of defining language

 Structural criteria

 Socio political criteria

Because they have been historically differentiated

Structural criteria:

Structural linguistics includes paradigm, syntagm, and value. In structural criteria, speaker has to

follow the rules of each system that make an utterance well-formed in the specific language;

otherwise they aren’t speaking that language.

In structural criteria, there are three systems of it which are as follow

 phonology

 morphology & syntax

 lexicon

Phonology:

It is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field

of linguistics studying this use. An important part of traditional forms of phonology has been
Running head: Criteria’s of defining languages

studying which sounds can be grouped into distinctive units within a language; these units are

known as phonemes. For example, in English, the [p] sound in pot is aspirated 

while [p] in soup is not aspirated.

Morphology:

The way that meaningful units of sound are organized into words and then organized again to

another levels into clauses and sentences.

Lexicon:

In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions.

The lexicon includes the lexemes used to actualize words. Lexemes are formed according

to morpho-syntactic rules and express sememes.

From a structural point of view, we use mutual intelligibility to group together linguistic varieties

and label them as a single language. Mutual intelligibility means that two speakers can

understand each other.

• Differences in any one of the three main systems of language can make a huge difference

in your ability to understand the other person.

• When there are two varieties showing enough structural overlap so that mutual

intelligibility is possible, we say we have two dialects of one language

• When varieties show a number of same features in 3 systems of language (phonology,

morphology–syntax, and lexicon), we call it structural overlap.

Socio political criteria:

Running head: Criteria’s of defining languages

Various Socio-political criteria include:

• National Borders

• Cultural Borders

• Religious Borders

National Borders:

• Linguistic varieties are often called separate languages just because they are spoken in

different nations.

• E.g. Scandinavian languages: Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish.

Cultural Borders:

• If the speakers see themselves as culturally different, they often refer to their varieties as

separate languages.

• Again MI is ignored.

• Another example of “languagecreation” exists in northern Uganda in East Africa between

the Acholi and Lango peoples.

Religious Borders:

If the speakers see themselves as from different religions, they often refer to their varieties as

separate languages.

• Again MI is ignored.
Running head: Criteria’s of defining languages

• South Asia provides an example of how languages can be created along religious lines.

Difference:

Structural criteria and socio political criteria of defining languages have been historically

differentiated. Each criteria is quite dissimilar with the other one so these are bounded by certain

sets of rules and their boundaries do not intersect each other. In structural criteria there are three

rules of defining language which are phonology which means the sound of a language and how

they are organized with one unit, morphology which is meant by how meaningful units of sounds

are organized into words and lexicon which states the vocabulary of language with meanings in

all the three points there is a concept of mutual intangibility of calling a same language. On the

other hand, as far as socio political criteria is concerned the language is recognized by totally

different aspects which are national borders means a language determined by a country, cultural

borders which shows people from different customs often refer their varieties as different

languages and in concept of religious borders group from different religions may also refer their

language as separate variety and there is no concept of mutual intangibility in this criteria. In first

criteria all the languages which have different dialects come under the heading of same language

because two speakers understand each other language. In second criteria if speakers understand

each other language still these are categorized into dissimilar languages due to cultural, national

and religious borders.

Arguments for one criterion:

By discussing the criteria’s of defining language we can easily distinguish between them. As far

as my opinion is concerned socio political criteria is easy to adopt and preferable for defining

language because people do not need to go in the core of languages. Now a day’s people are so
Running head: Criteria’s of defining languages

conscious about their cultures, religions and countries that any one of these aspects is enough for

them to called one different from others. As people are distinguished by their cultures, religions

and countries so it will be the preference of people to have different language because of these

three issues. In the creation of Pakistan, urdu was one of the major issue of demanding a separate

state for the Muslims. On the whole People can easily use the second criteria relative to first one

of defining language just because of the trends of the present world which strongly recommends

using socio political criteria of defining language. Even people who are not enough educated or

students of primary school can also differentiate the language on the basis of socio political

criteria because it is very easy to understand as compared to the structural criteria of defining any

language which is hard to recognize because the person should have the good command in

phonology, anthropology and lexicon of different languages.

Running head: Criteria’s of defining languages

Language.Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/language

Saussure's colleagues. (Feb 2007). Structuralism in linguistic. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism

(Feb 2010). Phonology. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonology

Lexicon. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicon

Hassan Gerdezi. (2010). Linguistic variety, (p. 3-22)