Language & a Language

Language can be conceived of as any means by which human beings communicate

information, ideas and feelings. Since it is almost natural for human beings to want to express
one thing or the other to people, it then becomes important for a resource to be put to use for
that purpose. Therefore, any resource that serves the purpose of delivering messages of
whatever kind to a people is language. What the above suggests is that language extends
beyond the conventional notion of spoken languages as it is inclusive of surrogate language,
and sign language, among others. However, for the present purpose, our concern is on spoken
languages such as English, Spanish, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, German, etc., which are unique to
human beings in view of their characteristics.
There is however a distinction between the terms: “language” and “a language”. While the
term “language” is generic, “a language” is specific. The term “language” is generally used to
describe all universal languages (i.e. all languages of the world) used for communication
among human beings while a language refers to a particular human language used by people
such as English, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, French, German, Spanish, etc. While we cannot talk of
dialects of language, a language can have several dialects; all of which are mutually
intelligible. For instance, Igbomina, Oyo, Ijebu, and Egba are some of the dialects of Yoruba.
Characteristics of Language
There are several characteristics of language but some of them which we consider more
important than the rest are listed below.
Language is arbitrary
This feature of language refers to the fact that there is no rational or logical relationship
between the words used in a language and what they refer to in the real world. Arbitrariness
as a feature of language states that there is no reasonable explanation for the meanings given
to words. That is why the same concept or thing can have different words being used to refer
to it in different languages. For instance, the word “water” in English has “wasser” as its
equivalents in German, “agua” in Spanish and “ruwa” in Hausa.
Innateness
Innateness refers to the feature of language which foregrounds the fact that it is natural for
any normal human child to acquire or learn language since the capacity for language learning
is in-born in human beings. This feature of language makes it known that the human brain is
wired for every normal human being to acquire/learn and use language. However, it should
be noted that this quality of language does not presuppose a normal human child to have a
language from birth naturally or providentially, as it is the capacity for language that is given
or natural in normal human beings.

Systematicity
Human language is structured in certain ways. Although the relationship between words and
their meanings is arbitrary, there are rules guiding the combination of speech sounds or letters
to form words just as there are rules guiding the combination of words to form sentences.
Therefore, human language is a patterned behavior.

Language is dynamic
Language is dynamic because it is always changing, evolving, and adapting to the needs of its
users. The language we use today is different from the language our parents used and
different from that used in Middle Ages. New words appear regularly. Dictionaries change.
Pronunciation differs. Even grammar rules evolve. As long as the needs of language users
continue to change, so will the language. Language is constantly adapting and changing to
reflect our changing lives, experiences and cultures. Language change enables us to
accommodate new ideas, inventions and technologies. It’s not just the words themselves
which change; the way in which we use them can shift too.
•Should I make some tea?
• Would you like some tea?
• Can I make you a cup of tea?
• Let’s have a cup of tea.
• How about a cup of tea?
• I could make you a cup of tea.
• Do you drink tea?
• Have some tea.
• There’s tea
in the pot.
Conventionality
This characteristic of language derives from the arbitrary nature of language. Since human
language is arbitrary, then it has to be conventional, as language use becomes normative
behavior in which case a community or society decides on the meaning of a particular word
and makes it a convention for the word to be used in that manner. Therefore, language use,
most especially with regards to words and their meanings, is a tacit agreement within a
linguistic community as to how to communicate.

Displacement
This refers to the fact that language can be used to talk about actions and events that are
remote in time and space, actions that took place at a past time, actions or events taking place
now and actions that will take place in future. We can use language to talk about things that
happened before we were born and we can use it to talk about things that are happening in
Gaza right now even though we are in Nigeria.

Cultural Transmission
Cultural transmission refers to the fact that language is culturally transmitted. It tells us that
language is acquired through exposure to a cultural environment rather than by genetic
endowment. A normal human child acquires or learns a language through interactions with
other members of his or her community, most especially his parents with whom there is first
contact.

Creativity
Human language is creative in the sense that human languages accommodate new words and
expressions. There are usually innovative ways by which languages enrich themselves which
show creativity. In fact, sometimes, old words are given new meanings to capture new
realities. Sometimes, a language can borrow words from other languages. For instances,
words such as alcohol, sugar, parliament, algebra, boomerang, etc., which are English words
today were borrowed from other languages. Also, as part of creativity, a language can make
use of coinage. For instance, edutainment, bigmanism, go-slow, etc. are all coined words in
English.
Language is social
Language is social in that interaction with other persons is psychologically necessary to learn
language. We use language to be in a community, to communicate with others. We depend on
others when learning language, and we constantly borrow one another’s uses of expressions.
Language helps us perform various social functions, and many of its uses have become
institutionalised. Language use is also part of social identity. I speak French, therefore, I
share some characteristics, attitudes with other French speakers.

Language is variation
Language is variation. There are usually several variants of a language and the is always
more than one way of saying the same thing. Speakers may vary pronunciation (accent), word
choice (lexicon), or morphology and syntax (grammar). Variation happens for many different
reasons. Sociolinguistics, the study of social factors affecting language, is based on the ideas
that language varies because of different social reasons such as age, race, gender, social-
economic status, geography, etc.

Language is meaningful
A language signal/symbol always conveys meaning. In linguistic terms, all the
symbols/signals of language have a semantic content. The semantic content means each
symbol is associated to something in the real world. Humans are able to give the same
symbol a meaning, and very often, more than one meaning, and they’re still able to
distinguish all of them.

Language is human
Language is human as it differs from animal communication in several ways. The
characteristics highlighted above set apart language from animal communication forms.
Some of these features may be part of animal communication; yet they do not form part of it
in its entirety.

Prevarication
Prevarication is a feature of languages that enables language users to use a language to tell a
lie. For instance, it is possible for somebody to say “I had dinner Jesus” or “My roommate is
the Managing Director of World Bank”.

THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

Human language performs a wide array of functions which make it inevitable for human
existence. Below, we discuss some of the functions of human language:
1. Language performs communicative functions. This is the traditional function of
language which talks about the use of language to convey messages and express ideas, etc.
2. Language performs phatic functions. Language is used to build and maintain social
relationships. Often times when we use language, we do not really intend to convey any new
information other than to show warmth to fellow human beings. For instance, when people
meet, they exchange greetings such as below:
A: “How are you?”
B: “I’m fine”
The first utterance might not necessarily be aimed at making the recipient to reveal
everything about his or her condition but rather be aimed at creating familiarity between the
interlocutors.
3. Language performs conative functions. This simply means that language is used to
express emotions. Emotions such as joy, sadness, frustration can well be expressed through
language.
4. Language performs directive functions. Language is used to share knowledge and ideas,
give directions and issue commands in order for things to be done properly.
5. Language is used to persuade. This function of language is concerned with the ability of
language to function as a persuasive tool to people who know how to manipulate it to achieve
their aims and objectives. For example, in political communication, politicians use language
in a way that they persuade the electorate to vote for them.

BRANCHES OF LANGUAGE
Language can be studied at various levels; sounds (Phonetics and Phonology), word
formation (Morphology), sentence construction (Syntax) and meaning (Semantics).
Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics is concerned with the production, perception and representation of speech sounds
in languages. Phonetics is a domain of knowledge that cuts across all languages. Phonetics
can be divided into three: articulatory phonetics, auditory phonetics and acoustic
phonetics. Articulatory phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds, the organs
involved in their production and how the sounds are described and classified. Acoustic
phonetics focuses on the physical properties of speech sounds. Auditory phonetics deals with
how speech sounds are perceived by the human ear.
Phonology is the aspect of language that is concerned with how sounds pattern in a particular
human language to form words. It has to do with the principles that guide the distribution of
sounds in a language. Phonology can be divided into segmental and suprasegmental
phonology. While segmental phonology studies individual sounds referred to as sound
segment, suprasegmental or prosodic phonology studies larger units of speech production
such as intonation, stress, tone, rhythm, etc.