Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Gov. Pablo Borbon Campus I, Batangas City, Philippines 4200
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Tel. No. 980-0385 local 1125

Name: ESTRELLA H. PICCIO Date: SEPTEMBER 13,2020

Course:PHD ENGLISH PROFESSOR: MYRNA O.
MEDRANO

REFLECTION 2

The Nature of Language: Models of language, The Study of Language,

Semantics, Language Typology and Phylogeny, Writing Systems and
Orthographies

SUMMARY:

Language is the most important tool humanity possesses. Through it,

we are able to convey ideas and relay information, allowing us to share our
thoughts while building upon and refining past ideas. Without language,
without this tool to relay and record concepts, we would be unable to
construct the plethora of elements which compose our civilization. It is
therefore no surprise that language has been developed by the various
societies and civilizations across the world. While the study of language itself
is a deeply fascinating endeavor, equal consideration should be given to the
study of language as it pertains to individual societies and the process of
development and evolution that language undertakes. Language is a
reflection of a society’s culture and its perception of the world; as it relays
information, it demonstrates how a certain society takes in, processes,
evaluates, and conveys that information. The development of a specific
language over time shows how the society or societies using it develop over
time as well, as changes in cultural perspective, social composition, and
political circumstances deeply impact the characteristics of a language.

The evolution and development of a language, a study known

as etymology, allows a fascinating look into a society’s changing
circumstances and evolving perceptions. Language of course evolves: the
languages which exist in the contemporary period are markedly different from
the languages which existed in the past, yet evolved out of those past
languages. Indeed, most languages can be traced back to a single progenitor
language; for example, the numerous Romance languages can trace their
roots back to Latin, itself a language of Italic roots, while Japanese, Chinese,
and Korean, because of their strikingly similar script system and tonal nature,
can also be traced back to a common ancestral language. The fact that these
languages then all changed shows that the societies which used the
progenitor language divided, split, and then divergently evolved in the ways
that they process, evaluate, and convey information.

Language is equally a reflection of political circumstances, and the

evolution of language demonstrates the changing of those circumstances.
English, for example, is an odd amalgam of German and French. It owes this
nature to the political events which created it: the British Isles were populated
by the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic speaking people, when invaded in 1066 by
William the Conqueror of Normandy. William was the vassal of the King of
France and therefore spoke French, and upon his conquest of the Anglo-
Saxons French became the language of administration on the Isles. Yet, over
time, the French language of the nobility blended with the Germanic of the
common population, gradually creating the English language which we now
use today. To further demonstrate this point, Romance languages are now
spoken across Western Europe because they trace their roots to Latin, which
was spread across Western Europe by the conquests of the Romans. Earlier
languages native to France, Spain, Italy, and Romania died out and replaced
by this common tongue, leading to the relative commonality of the Romance
languages in the contemporary day. A final example: English is now one of
the most commonly spoken languages across the world, and is the language
of business, science, and diplomacy. It is more often than not necessary for
someone to learn English if they hope to participate meaningfully in
international happenings. This can be attributed to the success of the United
States as the military, diplomatic, and economic hegemon over the last
century, creating the necessity for people to speak its language if they wished
to interact with it.

Language can therefore be seen as not only an important tool to convey

information, but as a reflection on the societies that use it. The particular
choice of words which compose a language and the syntax through which that
language is conveyed demonstrates the way a society perceives its
environment and relays information about it. By studying a society’s language
deeply, then, a greater understanding can be formed of that society itself.
Equally true is the fact that the changing nature of language is a reflection of
the changing circumstances in which a society finds itself. By tracing the
development and changes that occur in a language, another route can be
equally traced which reveals the development and changes which occur in the
society using it. Language is, again, our most important tool and is one of the
most commonly shared elements of civilization across the world. Indeed, it
seems almost as if the development and use of language is an innate human
characteristic. As such, studying it is one of the most profound and revealing
ways that we can understand the people of our world.

REFLECTION:
As discussed by the discussant, language is a conveyer of ideas and
concepts. The character of the language a certain society uses, then, reflects
the way they chose to convey those ideas and concepts. One way in which
this is evident is the words of which the language is composed. Like for
example how we understand the word used by somebody maybe not the
same to the concept and idea conveyed by the receiver. The character of a
language reflects on the society using it is through the syntax of that
language. Words are not the only way of conveying ideas and concepts; the
way those concepts and ideas are arraigned in a thought and relayed is
equally important in demonstrating their importance to a specific society. One
of the most apparent demonstrations in this can be seen in the way a
language arranges its adjectives and nouns.In the English language,
adjectives precede nouns. Information is processed not by first recognizing
and acknowledging the noun, but by its descriptive characteristics. This is a
different way of processing and conveying information than the Romance
language, and again therefore reflects differences between societies using the
different languages in processing ideas. In the study , Most Romance
languages follow the rule of “noun then adjective,” where the noun being
described by the adjective precedes the adjective. A greater weight is given to
the concept of the noun than is given to the adjective describing it, and this is
reflected in the fact that the noun must be said first. A descriptor cannot be
given until the thing it is describing is first made apparent, a reflection on the
way societies using Romance languages chose to process and convey
information.