Characteristics of
Human Language
First meeting: Tuesday, October
4, 2016
Composed by Aziza
Restu Febrianto
What is language?
- Language is the ability to acquire and use complex system of communication, particularly the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system (Wikipedia).
- Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammar, or the system of communication used by people in a particular country or type of work (Cambridge Dictionary).
Does an animal have a language?
Animal language is forms
of non-human animal communication that shows similarities to human language.
Animals communicate by using a variety of signs such as sounds or movements
(Wikipedia).
Language is considered to be a very complex form of communication
that occurs among the human race. It is a set of verbal and non-verbal
conventions that humans use to express their ideas and wants.
Humans use words while talking to
express their needs and wants, and they cry, slouch, and make faces when they
want to express feelings. Animals, or in other words non-humans also show signs
of communication such as a dog wagging its tail when excited or a bird singing
a song to attract the opposite sex. However, do animals have their language?
Many researchers say that
animals, non-humans, do not have a true language like humans. However, they do
communicate with each other through sounds and gestures. Animals have a number
of in-born qualities they use to signal their feelings, but these are not like
the formed words we see in the human language.
There is no doubt that animals
communicate with each other to one degree or another in response to different
stimuli such as hunger or fear. Human language is creative and consists of
unique characteristics that give us the ability to engage in abstract and
analytical ways. (Voxy.com)
Conclusion:
- Humans initiate language and produce it spontaneously.
- Small children can do much more than any intelligent animals. They learn to crawl, walk and run.
- Humans learn a language from communities.
- Human language produces utterances.
- Human language is communicative, spontaneous and systematic with phonological, lexical and grammatical rules.
- Animals have system to use for communication and convey information differently. Example: The bees can convey information about directions and where their vector is located.
- Animal language is totally holistic.
9 Elements of Human Language:
- Arbitrariness
The lack of any
connection between the sound of the word and what it means.
Example:
The English word
‘dog’ is ‘kutya’ in Hungarian, ‘chien’ in French, ‘kelev’ in Hebrew, ‘Hund’ in
German, etc.
- Constituent Stucture/ Structural Dependency
Any piece of
language has an internal structure. So, for example the order of words in a
sentence is not arbitrary. The previous sentence cannot be rewritten as ‘order
arbitrary is the words of a sentence in not’. The words are grouped into
constituents and grammatical rules refer to constituents, not to words.
Example:
In the sentence
‘The child with blue trousers is standing in front of me’, the first group of
words, ‘The child with the blue trousers’, can be substituted by one word –
‘she’ of ‘he’ (depending on whether it is a boy or a girl). The verb is in the
singular form, because the subject of the sentence is that whole group of
words, which refers to a singular entity.
- Cultural Transmission
Children learn
the language that is spoken to them; there is nothing genetic that predetermines
which language a child will speak.
Example:
A child born in
one community (e.g. Brazil) but adopted in another community (e.g. Israel) will
speak the language of the adoptive community.
- Displacement
The ability to
talk about things and events not present in the immediate environment.
Example:
She went to
France for her holidays and had a fantastic time.
- Hierarchical Organization
Human languages
are built from building blocks, small units which then combine to form larger
units, which in their turn combine to form even larger units.
Example:
Language uses
sounds; these sounds form syllables, which in turn make up words; words join
together to make phrases, which then combine into clauses and sentences, etc.
- Productivity
The ability to
create an infinite number of sentences from a limited number of words (a very
large number of words, but nevertheless limited). Human beings are also able to
produce sentences that no one has ever heard or produced before, and to
understand sentences which one has never heard and read before. Any sentences
can be modified by additions or insertions.
Example:
Any sentence in
any human language can be modified by additions or insertions, e.g:
Any sentence we
look at in any human language can almost always be modified by any number of
additions or insertions.
- Semanticity
Words refer to
meanings; these meanings can be objects or actions. Both speaker and hearer
know what is being referred to.
Example:
When I talk
about ‘words’ you all know what I mean and what I am referring to.
- Spontaneous Usage
Human beings are
not forced to speak; they initiate language and initiate speech of their own
will.
Example:
People greet strangers
on the street; in fact, most human transactions are accompanied by verbal
communication even when it is not absolutely necessary for the completion of
the transaction.
- Vocal-auditory Channel
The anatomical
part of the body where human speech is produced.
Example:
The differences
between sounds are the result of the different shaping of the lips, the tongue,
the larynx, while talking.
London,
October 8, 2016
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar