Instituto JIM – Profesorado de Inglés – 2do año Didáctica del Inglés I, 2020 – Prof.

Jorge Abboud

Lesson 2: What’s language?

“Language” has been defined in a myriad of ways, from many diverse perspectives and
considering quite different dimensions. For the purposes of this course, we are going to
consider three dimensions in the definitions of language: the linguistic dimension, the
social dimension and the biological/psychological dimension1.

Roughly speaking, the linguistic dimension is present in definitions which consider

language as a system, with elements that work together making it a kind of mechanism.
Definitions that include interaction among people and how they behave with language
include the social dimension. Finally, the biological/psychological dimension is found
when language is viewed as a function of the brain and/or processes of the mind.

Let’s consider the following definitions:

a. Language is the mental faculty humans use to communicate.

b. A language is a collection of elements (written or spoken) that people use to interact.

c. Language is an arbitrary system of grunts and squeals.

In definition a, we find the biological/psychological dimension (“mental faculty”) and the

social dimension (“to communicate”). In definition b, the linguistic dimension (“elements
(spoken or written”) and the social dimension (“people use to interact”) are present.

Definition c is out of the scope of our course, since this statement is hued with the poetic
dimension. It is taken from a conceptualization of language introduced by Borges, quoting
Chesterton, in one of his essays2. This definition by Borges parallels human language to
animal language, considering the words we utter as the sounds animals make. This is done,
obviously, pursuing a literary effect.

So, in our analysis we are going to consider just the three dimensions mentioned above.

1
Of course, these two dimensions can be treated separately, but this distinction is not relevant for our
purposes.
2
Borges, J. L. (1999) “John Wilkins’ Analytical Language”. Originally published in 1952 under the title “El
idioma analítico de John Wilkins”.