INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE

Definition Of Language

Communication by voice in the distinctively human manner, using

arbitrary sounds in conventional ways with conventional meanings.

It is also the system of linguistic signs or symbols considered in

the abstract ( as opposed to speech).

It is any set or system of such symbols as used in a more or less

uniform fashion by a number of people, who are thus enabled to

communicate intelligibly with one another.

Also any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures

conceived as a meaning of communicating thought, emotion,

Concept Of Language

Transformational Genetive

Grammara theory developed by

Noam Chomsky contains the idea

that a sentence has two meanings

within it.

The two include a deep

structure and a surface

structure.

He believed that language did

not have the same deep

structure in all languages but

rather languages had similarities

of structure.

In the 1990s, Chomsky

suggested that sentence

structure included Logical

Form and Phonetic Form.

This help children

understand that speech

can come in the form of

writing.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Communication is a process of exchanging verbal and non verbal messages.

It is a continuous process.

Communication is a two way process and is incomplete without a feedback from the recipient to the sender on how well the message is understood by him.

COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATION PROCESS

1. Context

- Every communication proceeds with context

- This context may be physical, social, chronological or cultural.

- The sender chooses the message to communicate within a context.

2. Sender / Encoder

- The Sender / Encoder is a person who sends the message.

- A sender makes use of symbols (words or graphic or visual aids) to convey

the message and produce the required response.

- Sender may be an individual or a group or an organization.

3. Message

- Message is a key idea that the sender wants to communicate.

- Communication process begins with deciding about the message to be

conveyed.

- It must be ensured that the main objective of the message is clear.

4. Medium

- Medium is used to exchange / transmit the message.

- The sender must choose an appropriate medium for transmitting the message

else the message might not be conveyed to the desired recipients.

- The choice of appropriate medium of communication is essential for making the

message effective and correctly interpreted by the recipient.

5. Recipient / Decoder

- Recipient / Decoder is a person for whom the message is intended / aimed /

targeted.

- The degree which message the decoder can understands is dependent upon

various factors such as knowledge of recipient, their responsiveness to the

message, and the reliance of encoder on decoder.

6. Feedback

- Feedback is the main component of communication process as it permits the

sender to analyze the efficacy of the message.

- It helps the sender in confirming the correct interpretation of message by the

decoder

Components of language

• Human language involves both receptive and productive use

Receptive language use occurs during the comprehension or understanding of words and sentences.

Productive language use involves idea generation and the articulation of words in speech.

Semantics

The system of meanings that are expressed

by words and phrases.

Semantics refers to the ways in which a language conveys meaning.

each new word is a major learning task for children

Phonology

The system of the sound segments that humans use to build up words.

Each language has a different set of these segments or phonemes, and children quickly come to recognize and then produce the speech segments that are characteristic of their native language

Moving to the next level of language, we find the study of the smallest units of meaning, morphemes.

Morphemes include base words, such as “hat,” “dog,” or “love,” as well as affixes, such as “un-,” “re-,” the plural “s” or “es,” and the past tense “ed.”

Knowledge of the morphology of our language is critical to vocabulary development and reflects the smallest building blocks for comprehension.

The study of how individual words and their most basic

meaningful units are combined to create sentences is

known as syntax. As words are grouped together when

we communicate, we must follow the rules of grammar

for our language, in other words, its syntax. It is the

knowledge of syntax that allows us to recognize that

the following two sentences, while containing different

word order and levels of complexity, have the same

meaning.

The boy hit the ball.

The ball was hit by the boy.

Syntax also allows us to accept “I went to the store” as

a meaningful (grammatical) sentence while “To store

went I” would not be acceptable English.

The system of patterns that determine how humans can use

language in particular social settings for particular

conversational purposes.

Children learn that conversations customarily begin with a

greeting, require turn taking, and concern a shared topic.

They come to adjust the content of their communications to

match their listener's interests, knowledge, and language ability.

“‘Pragmatics’ refers to the ways the members of the speech

community achieve their goals using language.” The way we

speak to our parents is not the same as the way we interact.

Factors affecting

language learning /

acquisition

Internal factors

Externall factors

Age

Personality

Motivation

Experiences

Cognition

Native

language

External

factors

Curriculum

Instruction

Culture and status

Motivation

Access to native

speakers