Linguistics

The study of the nature, structure, and variation of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.

Nature of Language

1.       Language is learnt: Learning of language is not an automatic process. Of course, it is a behavior but it is not type of behavior like walking and crawling that comes to child in natural way. Language by imitation and practice. Language is not possible without effort.

2.      Language is related to the culture of society: Every language is related to culture of society to which it belongs. The culture of the people naturally influences the language. Every language is the product of society. We cannot separate language from the culture in which that language exists. It has meaning only in relation to that society and culture.

3.      Language is species specific: Language is species specific. Only human beings have got the gift of language. Of course, the other species do communicate but only human beings can make use of language.

4.      Language is species uniformed: Language is species uniformed. All human children are capable of acquiring any language natively if they are provided the right kind of environment.

5.      Language is a system: Each language is a unique system. The system of language consists of sounds, structures and vocabulary. A person who wants to learn a new language will have to learn new sounds, new structures and new vocabulary. The sound system of language differs from language to language depending upon the culture to which a language belongs. Each language has its own system of vocabulary. Thus each language is systematic.

6.      Language is a system of systems: Each language is a system of systems. There are phonological and grammatical systems in all languages. There are several sub systems with in a language. The phonology of a language forms its own system as the various sounds function in a systematic way.

7.      Language is a system of symbols: Each language works through symbols. Different words used in a language are the symbols. They stand for

certain things. The language will function well if its symbols are known both to the speaker and the person for whom they are being used.

For example the world cup has three sounds (K, Л, P) It is a symbol of English because a meaning is attached to it. But if we take the same three sounds like, K, Л, P they do form Puc, but that is not a symbol of English language as no meaning is attached to it.

8.      Symbols of language are vocal: Different symbols are used in a single language. These symbols are vocal. A language system does not exist in a vacuum. It is primary used in speech. Only speech provides all essential signals of a language. There are other kinds of symbols which cannot be called vocal symbols. For example, gestures and signal flags are visual symbols and ringing of the bells and beating of a drum are auditory symbols. They do not form any language. In language the sounds are produced through vocal organs. Reading and writing are no doubt important. But speech is the basic form of language. A language without speech is unthinkable.

9.      Language is a skill subject: Learning of a language is a skill subject. It is skill like swimming and cycling. We cannot learn swimming or cycling just by studying rules. We can learn it by practice. In the same way, we can learn a language y constant practice of that language. So a lot of repetition for major linguistic skills like listening, speaking, reading and writing is required.

10.    Language is for communication: Language is the best means of communication and self-expressions. Human beings express their ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions through language. In this way language is a means to connect past present and future.

11.     Governed by a particular set of rules: Each language is governed by a particular set or rules. For example English is S.V.O. language. In forming sentence, we put subject, then verb and after verb we put object.

12.    Symbols of language are Arbitrary: Here by arbitrary symbols we meant that there is no visual relationship between the language item and the object for which it stands. A man is called man traditionally. There is no visual similarity between the symbol ‘man’ and the actual man. We have not named it so on the basis of some logic or scientific principles. In English we say man, in ‘Hindi’ we say ‘manauYya’ and in Punjabi we say ‘___________’. None of them is better than the other. In fact, we call a man ‘man’ because people have agreed to use it in that sense.

13.    Language is unique: Each language is unique because it has its own style of functioning. The sounds, vocabulary and structures of every language have their own specialty.

Importance of Language

The importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday

lives. We use language to inform the people around us of what we feel, what we desire,

and question/understand the world around us. We communicate effectively with our

words, gestures, and tone of voice in a multitude of situation. Would you talk to a small

child with the same words you would in a business meeting. Being able to communicate

with each other, form bonds, teamwork, and it’s what separates humans from other

animal species. Communication drives our lives and better ourselves.

Origins of why there are so many different languages has plagued scholars and

linguistics for centuries and will continue to puzzle them far beyond our lifetimes to

come. In most cultures have myths that there was a common language spoke among

the people with a deity getting angry and confusing the people or separating them from

each other/segmenting the people to create their own language. Prime examples of

stories like this is the “Tower of Babel”, Hindu with the story of the “Knowledge Tree”,

and even Native Americans believing in a “Great Deluge(Flood)” separating people and

speech.

The importance of communication can be often overlooked. Even with the ability to

communicate with each other. Misunderstandings happen. Remember, communication

is a two way street that should be embraced and not ignored. Believe it or not, some

people can be arrogant to believe they can’t go to foreign countries without knowing

anything of the language or culture of the people in the places they visit. The

importance of language is beneficial regardless if you do it for fun or for your career or

even just for personal travel.

They expect the indigenous people to accommodate them and know their language.

The importance of language isn’t much different no matter what your nationality is.

Honestly, if you were to study other languages you will find that most of them are

actually pretty similar. Mainly the differences are in alphabet, pronunciation, and

grammar with the syntax generally staying the same. We should use it to show our

understanding of the cultures and lives of our fellow men in other lands. We should go

behind the outer shell and see the speaker beneath.

Functions of Language

1. The Referential Function 

Corresponds to the factor of Context and describes a situation, object or mental

state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of both

definite descriptions and deictic words, e.g. "The autumn leaves have all fallen

now."

2. The Poetic Function 

Focuses on "the message for its own sake"[3] (the code itself, and how it is used)

and is the operative function in poetry as well as slogans.

3. The Emotive (alternatively called "expressive" or "affective") Function 

Relates to the Addresser (sender) and is best exemplified by interjections and

other sound changes that do not alter the denotative meaning of an utterance but

do add information about the Addresser's (speaker's) internal state, e.g. "Wow,

what a view!"

4. The Conative Function 

Engages the Addressee (receiver) directly and is best illustrated

by vocatives and imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!"

5. The Phatic Function 

is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the

Contact/Channel factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and

casual discussions of the weather, particularly with strangers. It also provides the

keys to open, maintain, verify or close the communication channel: "Hello?",

"Ok?", "Hummm", "Bye"...

6. The Metalingual (alternatively called "metalinguistic" or "reflexive") Function 

is the use of language (what Jakobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself.

(All this article is an example of metalinguistic Function).

Aspects of Language (Psycho and Sociolinguistic)

Psycholinguistic

Psycholinguistics or psychology language is the study of

the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and

produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical or educational

schools of thought, due mainly to their location in departments other than applied sciences (e.g.,

cohesive data on how the human brain functioned). Modern research makes use

of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and information science to study how the

brain processes language, and less so the known processes of social sciences, human

development, communication theories and infant development, among others. There are a number

of sub disciplines with non-invasive techniques for studying the neurological workings of the brain;

for example, neurolinguistics has become a field in its own right.

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society,

including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and

the effects of language use on society. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of

language in that the focus of sociology of language is the effect of language on the

society, while sociolinguistics focuses on the society's effect on language.

Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics. It is historically

closely related to linguistic anthropology and the distinction between the two fields has

even been questioned recently.

Properties of Language

1. Productivity - This entails that our language serves a purpose. Its purpose is to

produce communication and emit messages that will be used for further tasks. Although

most living beings produce their own communication for their own common needs,

human language is unique in that it comes in both written and oral form and both serve

the same goal.

2. Creativity - creativity trait confers our language the ability to ply the already

established norms of grammar, morphology and syntax into new words, complete with

new semantic goals. For example, whenever a rock star or someone famous coins a

new word, such word is accepted and even used globally.

3. Displacement - is used in human communication to describe or refer to things that

are not visually present. Yet, the fact that their names are mentioned adds to the validity

of human productivity. Babies are often taught displacement when they are asked

questions such as "Where is grandma?" even when grandma is not in the room. Using

this property shows that words are still valid with or without visual support.

4. Arbitrariness - is perhaps the most interesting because we often take it for granted.

It entails the fact that written words and spoken words do not necessarily have to

correlate in terms of sound and symbol. We can write a word and pronounce it

completely different. Some great examples that often come up in Linguistics

exercises are the provinces and estates of England. When you have names of towns

such as Warwick, Berwick, and Alnwick, the first tendency is to pronounce each sound

that is written down as you read it.

5. Duality - refers to the fact that words can be broken apart into chunks. Those chunks

may or may not have a meaning, however, they are extremely useful to form new words.

A wonderful example of such important word chunks are suffixes and prefixes. Although

the lexemes, themselves, do not seem to have meaning, when they are attached to a

word they affect the meaning of that word, altogether.

6. Discreetness - sort of reaffirms duality as it establishes the fact that words are a combination of sounds and symbols, and the symbols are letters and syllables. Again, the syllables may have no meaning on their own, but they are indeed identifiable as imperative in the process of word formation.

Components or Division of Languages

Morphology -  is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of

a given language’s morphemes and other linguistic units, such as root words, affixes, parts of speech, intonations and stresses, or implied context. In contrast, morphological typology is the classification of languages according to their use of morphemes, while lexicology is the study of those words forming a

language's word stock.

Syntax - is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language. The term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes.[1] The goal of many syntacticians is to

discover the syntactic common to all languages.

Phonology - is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages. It has traditionally focused largely on the study of the systems of phonemes in particular languages (and therefore used to be also called phonemics, orphonematics), but it may also cover any linguistic

analysis either at a level beneath the word (including syllable, onset and rime, articulatory, articulatory features, mora, etc.) or at all levels of language where sound is considered to be structured for conveying linguistic meaning. Phonology also includes the study of equivalent organizational systems in sign languages.

Semantics - is the subfield that is devoted to the study of meaning, as inherent at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse (termed texts, or narratives). The study of semantics is also closely linked to the subjects of representation, reference and denotation. The basic study of semantics is oriented to the examination of the meaning of signs, and the study of relations between different linguistic units

and compounds: homonymy, synonymy, antonyms, hypernym, hyponymy,

meronyms, metonymy, homonym, patronyms

Pragmatics - is a subfield of linguistics and semiotics that studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicate, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior inphilosophy, sociology, linguistics and anthropology. Unlike semantics, which examines meaning that is conventional or "coded" in a given language, pragmatics studies how the transmission of meaning depends not only on structural and linguistic knowledge (e.g. Grammar, lexicon, etc.) of the speaker and listener, but also on the context of the utterance, any pre-existing knowledge about those involved, the inferred intent of the speaker, and other factors.