Lecture three : LANGUAGE AND ITD CHARACTERISTICS Ms Madani

 Definition of Language by Different scholars

o Aristotle
o Saussure
o Sapir
o Bloomfield
o Bloch and Trager
o Noam Chomsky
o Derbyshire
o Lyons
o Wardhaugh
o Patanjali
o Encyclopedia Britannica
o References

If you ask someone else what is the best way to communicate with yourself? Without any
hesitation or hindrance, he will reply to you ‗definitely language‘. So language is the most
influential ways to communicate with each other. But many of us want to get the answer to the
question ‗what is the definition of language‘? In fact, everybody is capable of attempting this
question and answering it somehow or other. Nonetheless, we are not able to find a single
definition of language that has completely explained the phenomenon in that particular question
and give us the satisfaction and stopped scholars, authors and linguists to define the exact answer
of that question.

However, language is a complex human phenomenon as all attempts to define it has proved
inadequate. In brief, we can say, language is an ‗original noise‘ used in actual social situations by
human beings. Language is basically a system of conventional, spoken or written symbols by
means of which human beings are used to communicate with each other.

Let us now go through the definition of language delivered by different scholars, linguists,
authors and reference books.

Definition of Language by Different scholars

Aristotle

Speech is the representation of the experience of the mind. That is according to Aristotle,
language is a speech sound produced by human beings in order to express their ideas, emotions,
thoughts, desires and feelings.

Saussure

Language is an arbitrary system of signs constituted of the signifier and signified. In other words,
language is first a system based on no logic or reason; secondly, the system covers both objects
and expressions used for objects; and thirdly objects and expressions are arbitrarily linked; and
finally, expressions include sounds and graphemes used by humans for generating speech and
writing respectively for the purpose of communication.

Sapir

According to Sapir, language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating

ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced sounds. The definition
of Sapir expresses that language is mainly concerned with only human beings and constituted a
system of sounds produced by them for communication.

Bloomfield

The totality of the utterances that can be made in a speech community is the language of that
speech community. Bloomfield‘s definition of language focuses on the utterances produced by
all the people of a community, and hence overlooks writing. Besides, he stresses form, not
meaning, as the basis of language.

Bloch and Trager

According to Bloch and Trager, a language is a system of arbitrary vocal sounds by means of a
social group cooperates. In their definition of language, they point out that, language is an
arbitrary system, vocal sounds, way of communication, and collectivity.

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky says the language is the inherent capability of the native speakers to understand
and form grammatical sentences. A language is a set of (finite or infinite) sentences, each finite
length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. This definition of language considers
sentences as the basis of a language. Sentences may be limited or unlimited in number, and are
made up of only limited components.

Derbyshire

Derbyshire says the language is undoubtedly a kind of means of communication among human
beings. It consists primarily of vocal sounds. It is articulatory, systematic, symbolic and
arbitrary. This definition of Derbyshire clearly utters, language is the best source of
communication. It also portrays how human language is formed and what are the fundamental
principles of language.

Lyons

According to Lyons, languages are the principal systems of communication used by particular
groups of human beings within the particular society of which they are members. Especially
Lyons points out that, language is the best communicative system of human beings by particular
social groups.
Wardhaugh

A language is a system of arbitrary vocal sounds used for human communication. This definition
of language by Wardhaugh mainly insists on arbitrariness, vocal sounds, humans and
communication.

Patanjali

Indian linguist Patanjali utters, language is that human expression which is produced by different
speech organs of human beings. Through speech organs, humans produced several expressions
which are converted to language.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Language is a system of conventional or written symbols by means of which human beings as

members of social groups and participants in its culture, communicate. In other words, it says the
language is a system of communication of which human beings express themselves.

Thus, we can say, language is a system of communication or arbitrary vocal sounds by means of
which human beings are used to communicate and interact with each other in their everyday life.

There are approximately 6,500 spoken languages available in the entire world used by different
kinds of social groups and cultures.

References

Bloomfield Leonard (1914): An introduction to the study of language. New York: Henry Holt and
company.
Chomsky, Noam (2000): The Architecture of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lyons John (1981): Language and Linguistics: Cambridge University Press.
Encyclopedia Britannica: Language | Definition, Characteristics & Change
Competence Versus Performance

The concept of competence versus performance is fundamental to the study of language. This
distinction recognizes that the ―mistakes‖ people make when speaking (performance) may not
accurately reflect what they actually know (competence). We all have made ―slips of the
tongue,‖ where we substitute a word or sound for another or use a different grammatical form
than intended, with sometimes humorous results. For example, you might say you need to go
―shake a tower‖ instead of ―take a shower,‖ ask someone to be ―pacific‖ rather than be
―specific,‖ or accuse someone of telling a ―lack of pies‖ rather than ―pack of lies.‖ Performance
errors can also be found in comprehension, such as mishearing ―just a position‖ for
―juxtaposition.‖

These kinds of mistakes do not mean that we have an inaccurate knowledge of language. Rather,
a variety of conditions, both internal to the individual (i.e., memory limitations or fatigue) and
external (i.e., distractions or interruptions) can cause a difference between what people know
about their language and how they apply that knowledge in real situations.

Noam Chomsky defined competence as the underlying knowledge each speaker-hearer has about
the language of his or her community. As such, competence is an ideal, which presupposes a
―completely homogeneous speech-community.‖ It is hypothesized as a psychological or mental
property or function and therefore cannot be directly observed. In contrast, performance refers to
an actual communicative act of speaking or hearing. In this distinction, performance
is an incomplete and inaccurate demonstration of what an individual knows about his or her
language.

The competence-performance distinction is an important one in linguistics. One of the major

goals of linguistic research is to discover how children develop language. Another is to
understand how language functions within the human brain. One difficulty in conducting these
types of language research is that actual speech contains errors. In 1965, Noam Chomsky argued
that the focus of linguistic theory must be on the underlying language system (competence), not
the act of speaking (performance). While performance errors may illuminate how language is
perceived and organized in the brain, the goal of a theory of language is not a description of what
people actually say. Rather, it is to describe the cognitive mechanism by which humans can
produce an infinite number of sentences, many of which they have never heard, from a finite
number of words and grammatical structures. Therefore, it is crucial to differentiate between
competence and performance.

Chomsky‘s distinction between competence and performance has undergone some criticism,
such as for the emphasis on grammar in his definition of competence. Subsequently, Dell Hymes
and others have introduced the concept of ―communicative competence,‖ which refers to an
individual‘s knowledge of how to use language appropriately in different social and
communicative contexts. The focus on language use has emerged in recent years in a variety of
areas, including language socialization research. This type of study examines how children from
different backgrounds are socialized to use language in culturally appropriate ways and how they
develop understanding of the social organization
and worldview of their cultural group through the development of their community‘s
language.

The distinction between competence and performance remains important to many areas of study
(i.e., artificial intelligence and second language acquisition) and is widely applied. Nonetheless,
as with the theory of language for which this distinction was originally proposed, many questions
and controversies remain. Yet, for many, this is a useful heuristic device that allows us to
consider and explain how in terms of our language abilities, as in many other areas of human
cognition, we may know more than we can demonstrate through our actions in daily life.

References:

1. Broderick, P. B. (n.d.). Chomsky for philosopher Retrieved from

http://www.personal.kent.edu/~pbohanbr/Webpage/New/newintro.html
2. Brown, , Malmkjær, K., & Williams, J. (Eds.). (1996). Performance and competence in second
language acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
3. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: MIT
4. Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
5. Szabó, G. (n.d.). Brief biography of Chomsky, Noam Avram (1928– ). Retrieved from
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/zs15/Chomsky.pdf
 CHARLES HOCKETT:
DESIGN FEATURES OF HUMAN
LANGUAGE
FEATURE: Explanation:
Vocal-auditory channel Communicator speaks; receiving individual hears.
Broadcast Message goes out in all directions;
transmission; receiver can tell what direction message comes from.
directional reception (Sign language uses line-of-sight transmission instead.)
Rapid fading Message is transitory and does not persist.
Transmitters can become receivers, and vice versa;
Interchangeability
we can each repeat any message.
Total feedback We hear all that we say.
We communicate just for the purpose of communicating
Specialization (not incidentally to some other primary function).
Direct energy consequences are unimportant.
Symbols used (phonemes, morphemes) have particular
Semanticity
meanings.
Symbols are arbitrary: the work "loud" can be spoken
softly;
Arbitrariness
"whale" is a smaller word than "microorganism";
"dog", "perro", "chien", "hund", "canis" all mean the same.
Symbols are made by combining smaller symbols
Discreteness
that differ discontinuously (e.g., "bin", "pin").
The smaller symbols ("p", "t") have no meaning of their
Duality of patterning own,
and can be combined in various ways ("pit", "tip").
Hockett originally thought that the remaining features were exclusively human.
You can talk about something not immediately present
Displacement
(at a distance, or in the past).
Prevarication We can say things that are false or hypothetical.
Productivity Novel utterances can be made and understood.
Traditional transmission Languages are socially learned (not genetic),
 (culturally) and are passed down through generations.
Learnability We can learn new languages (easier in childhood).
We can use language to talk about language
Reflexiveness (e.g., "noun", "adjective", "sentence")

 Hockett’s Features of Human Language

• It is any code that involves signs, symbols, and gestures used in communication. • It is a social

tool used to communicate, express emotions, feelings, and ideas.

 Use of sound signals • Some animals use a variety of means to communicate with others, e.g.

Crabs communicate by waving their claws. • The use of sounds is also used to communicate by

humans and some animals, like birds, dolphins, cows, monkeys. • • Sound signals have several

advantages. They can be used in the dark, and at some distance, they allow a wide variety of

messages to be sent and they leave the body free for other activities. Use of sound signals •

Humans may have acquired sound signaling at the latter part of evolution. • This might be true

since the body parts used in speech have more than their basic functions.

 Arbitrariness • In animal communication, there is often a strong recognizable link between

the actual signal and the message an animal wishes to convey. • In human language, there is no

link whatsoever between the signal and the message. • There is no intrinsic connection between,

for 8. example, the word Elephant and the animal it symbolizes.

 . Arbitrariness (Across Languages) • Evidence of Arbitrariness: Diverse Languages • ―Cat‖

has different pronunciations in different languages • Similarities are the product of common roots

and/or diffusion from one language to another

The need for learning • Many animals automatically know how to communicate without

learning. Their systems of communication are genetically inbuilt. • This is quite different from

the long learning process needed to acquire human language, which is culturally transmitted. • A

human being brought up in isolation simply does not acquire language. And there is almost

certainly some type of innate predisposition towards language in a new-born child. This latent

potentiality can be activated only by long exposure to language, which requires careful learning.

 Duality • • Animals who use vocal signals have a stock of basic sounds which vary according

to species. • Human language works rather differently. Each language has a stock of sound units

or phonemes. Each phoneme is normally meaningless in isolation. • It becomes meaningful only

when it is combined with other phonemes. F, g, d, o, means nothing separately. They normally

take on meaning only when they are combined together in various ways, as in fog, dog, god.

 Duality • Double articulation is this organization of language into two layers– a layer of

sounds which combine into a second layer of larger units.

 Displacement • Most animals can communicate about things in the immediate environment

only. A bird, for example, utters its danger cry only when danger is present. • Human language,

by contrast, can communicate about things that are absent as easily as about things that are

present. This is called ―displacement‖.

 Creativity (Productivity) • Most animals have a very limited number of messages they can

send or receive. • These followings are the translation of male of certain species of grasshopper:

1. I am happy, life is good. 2. I would like to make love. 3. You are trespassing on my territory.
4. She‘s mine. 5. Let‘s make love. 6. Oh how nice to have made love. • The limitation or

restriction of messages is not found in human language, which is essentially creative (or

productive). Humans can produce novel utterances whenever they want to. A person can utter a

sentence which has never been said before.

Patterning • Many animal communication systems consist of a simple list of elements. There is

no internal organization within the system. • Human language, on the other hand, is most

definitely not a haphazard heap. Humans do not juxtapose sounds and words in a random way. •

Every item in language has its own characteristics place in the total pattern. It can combine with

certain specified items and be replaced by others.

 Patterning • The – burglar – sneezed – loudly • A – robber – coughed – softly • That – cat –

hissed –noisily • Language can therefore be regarded as an intricate network of interlinked

elements in which every item is held in its place and given its identity by all the other items.

 Structure Dependence • Look at the sentences: The penguin squawked. It squawked. The

penguin which slipped on the ice squawked. • Each of these sentences has a similar basic

structure. The penguin It The penguin which slipped on the ice squawked • Language operations

are structure dependent—they depend on an understanding of the internal structure of a sentence.

Linguistics Made Easy by Jean Aitchison (2012)

 Human Language VS Animal Communication • Human language is a signaling system which

uses sounds, a characteristic shared by a large number of animal systems. • In animal

communication, there is frequently a connection between the signal and the message sent and the

system is mainly genetically inbuilt.

 Human Language VS Animal Communication • In human language, the symbols are

mostly arbitrary and the system has to be painstakingly. • Duality and displacement are rare in
the animal world. Creativity seems not to be present in any natural communication system

possessed by animals. • Language is a patterned system of arbitrary sound signals, characterized

by structure dependence, creativity, displacement, duality and cultural transmission.

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