‘Many definitions of language have been proposed. Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar, stated: “Language is the ‘expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts.” The American linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated the following definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.” Any succinct definition of language makes a number of presuppositions and begs a number of questions. The first, for example,a specialized, though legitimate, way.Every physiologically and mentally typical person acquires in childhood the ability to make use, as both sender and receiver, of a system of communication that comprises a circumscribed set of symbols (e.g., sounds, gestures, or written or typed characters). In spoken language,information, to express feelings and emotions, to influence the activities of others, and to comport themselves with varying degrees of friendliness or hostility toward persons who make use of substantially the same set of symbols.Different systems of communication constitute different languages; the degree of difference needed to establish a different language cannot be stated exactly. NO two people speak exactly alike; hence, one is able to recognize the voices of friends over the telephone and to keep distinct a number of unseen speakers in a radio broadcast. Yet, clearly, no one would say that they speak different languages. Generally, systems of communication are recognized as different languages if they cannot be understood without specific learning by (both parties) though the precise limits of mutual intelligibility are hard to draw and belong on a scale rather than on either side of a definitedividing line. Substantially different systems of communication that may impede but do not prevent mutual comprehension are called dialects of a language. In order to describe in detail the actual different language patterns of individuals, the term idiolect, meaning the habits of expression of a single person, has been coined.Typically, people acquire a single language initially—their first language, or native tongue, the language used by those with whom, or by whom, they are brought up from infancy. Subsequent “S666Rd"IagUages are learned to different degrees of competence under various conditions. .Complete mastery of two languages is designated as bilingualism; in many cases—such as upbringing by parents using different languages at home or being (faised Within a multilingual Community—children grow up as (bilinguals, In traditionally monolingual cultures, the learning, to any extent, of a second or other language is an activity superimposed on the prior mastery of one’s first language and is a different process intellectually.Language, as described above, is species-specific to human beings. Other members of the @nimal kingdom have the ability to communicate, through vocal noises or by other means, but the most important single feature characterizing human language (that is, every individual language), against every known mode of animal communication, is its infinite productivity and creativity. Human beings are unrestricted in what they can communicate; no area of ‘experience is accepted as necessarily incommunicable, though it may be necessary to adapt one’s language in order to cope with new discoveries or new modes of thought. Animal/eommunication systems,communicate, through vocal noises or by other means, but the most ‘important single feature characterizing human language (that is, every individual language), against every known mode of animal communication, is its infinite productivity and creativity. Human beings are unrestricted in what they can communicate; no area of experience is accepted as necessarily incommunicable, though it may be necessary to adapt one’s language in order to cope with new discoveries or new modes of thought. Animal éommunication systems: ‘are ‘by contrast Very tightly circumscribed in what may be Gormmmuniested) Indeed, displaced reference, the ability to communicate about things outside immediate temporal and spatialcontiguity, which is fundamental to speech, is found elsewhere only in the So-called language Of bees. Bees are able, by carrying out various onvenitionalized (MOVEMENTS (referred to as bee dances) in or near thehive, to indicate to others the locations and strengths of food sources. But food sources are the only known theme of this communication (System: Surprisingly, however, this system, nearest to human language in function, belongs to a species remote from humanity in the animal kingdom. On the other hand, the animal performance superficially most like human speech, the mimicry of parrots and of some other birds that have been kept in the company of humans, is wholly derivative and serves no independent communicative function. Humankind’snearest relatives among the primates, though possessing a vocal physiology similar to that of humans, have not developed anything like a spoken language. Attempts to teach sign language to chimpanzees and other apes through imitation have achieved |limited suécess,In most accounts, the primary purpose of language is to facilitate I communication, in the sense of transmission of information from one person to another. However, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistie studies have drawn attention to a range of Other functions for language. Among these is the Use of language to express a national or local (dentity (a common source of conflict in situations of multiethnicity around the world, such as in Belgium, India, and Quebec). Also important are the “ludie” (playful) function of language—encountered in such phenomena as (punis;/Fiddles;/and /erossword |puizzles—and therange of tunctions seen In (iio SUC aS Language interacts with every aspect of human life in society, and it can be understood bnly if itis considered in relation to society. This Course attempts to survey language in this light and to consider its various functions and the purposes it can and has been made to serve. Because each language is both a working system of communication in the period and in the community wherein it is used and also the product of its history and the source of its future development, any account of language must consider it from both these points of view.It includes what are generally distinguished as descriptive linguistics and linguistics. Linguistics is now a highly technical subject; it embraces, both descriptively and historically, such major divisions as phonetics, (including syntax and morphology), semantics, and pragmatics, dealing in detail with these various aspects of language.Languages are immensely complicated structures. One soon realizes how complicated any language is when trying to learn it as a second language. If one tries to frame an exhaustive description of all the rules ‘is able to produce and understand an infinite number of correct well-formed sentences—one can easily appreciate the complexity of the Knowledge that a child acquires while mastering a native vernacular. The descriptions of languages written so far are in most cases excellent as far as they go, but they still omit more than they contain of an explicit account of native users’ competence in their language, whether that language is English, French, or Japanese. Likewise, ongoing work in the study of language has underscored just how much effort is needed to bring palpable fact within systematic statement.This course proposes simply to give a brief outline of the way language or languages can be considered and described from different points of view, or at different levels, each contributing something essential and » unique to a full understanding of the subject.Phonetics and phonology The most obvious aspect of language is speech. Speech is not essential to the definition of an infinitely productive communication system, such as is constituted by a language. But, in fact, speech is the universal _material_of most human language, and the conditions of speaking and hearing have, throughout human history, shaped and determined its development. The study of the anatomy, physiology, neurology, and acoustics of speaking is called phonetics. Articulatory phonetics relates to the physiology of speech, and acoustic phonetics relates to the physics of sound waves—i.e., their transmission andPhonetics covers much of the ground loosely referred to in language study as pronunciation. But, from a rather different point of view, speech sounds are also studied in phonology. Spoken language makes use of a very wide range of the articulations and resultant sounds that are available within the human vocal and auditory resources. Each spoken language uses a somewhat different range, and this is partly responsible for the difficulty of learning to speak a foreign language and for speaking it “with an accent.” But mere repertoires of sounds are not all that is involved. Far fewer general classes of sounds are distinctiveall that is involved. Far fewer general classes of sounds are distinctive (carry meaning differences) in any language than the number of sounds that are actually phonetically different. (The/ERglish’/t//SOUNdS at the beginning and end of t6t and in the two places (if/Stouter areal Gifferent) though these differences are not readily noticed by English speakers, and, rightly, the same letter is used for them all. Similar statements could be made about most or all of the other ConsonantWhat is distinctive in one language may not be distinctive in another or ‘May be Used in’ different Way; this is an additional difficulty to be overcome in learning a foreign language. In @HiRES@ and in several other languages loosely called tone languages, the pitch, or tone, on which a syllable is said helps to distinguish one word from another: ma ‘in northern Chinese on a level tone means “mother,” on a rising tone ‘means “hemp,” and on a falling tone means “to curse.” In English and inmost of the languages of Europe (though not all—Swedish and Norwegian are exceptions), pitch differences do not distinguish one word from another but form part of the intonation tunes that contribute to the structure and structural meaning of spoken’ sentences.bbe grouped into syllables in words. English and German tolerate several consonants before and after a single vowel: strengths has three consonant sounds before and three after a single vowel sound (ng and th stand for one sound each). Italian does not have such complex syllables, and in Japanese and Swahili, for example, the ratio of consonant and vowel sounds in syllables and in words is much more even. Speakers of such languages find English words of the sort just mentioned very hard to pronounce, though to a native speaker of English they are perfectly natural, natural in this context meaning “within the sounds and sound sequences whose mastery is acquired inearly childhood as part of one’s primary language”. All these considerations relating to the use of speech sounds in particular languages fall under the general heading of Phonology, which may be defined as the sound system of a language; Phonology is often regarded as one component of language structure.‘Grammar Another component of language structure is grammar. There is more to language than sounds, and words are not to be regarded as merely sequences of syllables, The concept of the word is’ grammatical concept; in speech, [Se Very generally, distinguished because they occupy different places in sentence structure, and in most languages some of them appear in different SSREISESSTEIEEEENEIGNUINEKION (Enelish man, men; walk, walked: |,Traditionally, grammar has been divided into Syntax and Morphology, Syntax dealing with the relations between words in sentence structure and Morphology with the internal grammatical structure of words. The relation between girl and girls and the relationship (irregular) between ‘woman and women would be part of Morphology; the relation of between the girl [or woman] is here and the girls [or women] are here would be part of Syntax.Grammatical_forms_and_ grammatical structures are part of the communicative apparatus of languages, and along with vocabulary, or (the express all the meanings required. Spoken language has, in addition, resources such as emphatic stressing and intonation. This is-notto-say, ge), they serve toiid |REUEEFIZeRdEFS correspond with differences of sex, orwith-any other category of meaning in relation to the external world.Among the many @xamples Of investigation for study Within Semantics, are the sense relations between words (such as synonymy and antonymy), the nature of “semantic features” of word meaning (e.g., ‘Woman = [adult, female, human), and the ways in which Words¥aroup) themselves into domains (“semantic fields”).‘Semantics Language exists to be meaningful; the study of meaning, both in general theoretical terms and in reference to a specific language, is known as Semantics. Semantics embraces the meaningful functions of phonological features, such as intonation, and of grammatical structures and the meanings of individual words. |t-is-thistast-domain,‘Dialects It has already been pointed out that no two persons speak exactly alike, of people speaking the same language), there are subdivisions of recognizably different types of language, called dialects, that do not, however, render intercommunication impossible or markedly difficult.and_language-can-be-used with reasonable agreement. One speaks of different dialects of English (Southern British English, Northern British English, Scottish English, Midwest American English, New England American English, Australian English, and so on, with, of course, many more delicately distinguished subdialects within these very general categories), but-no-one_-would-speak-of Welsh_and_English_orofrishmost-specialized_varieties_of language. Professions whose members value their standing in society and are eager to render their services to the public foster their own vocabulary and usage, partly to enhance the dignity of their profession and the skills they represent but partlythem.But for certain purposes in restricted situations, much greater precision is required, and part of the function of the particular style and vocabulary of legal language is the avoidance, so far as may be possible, of all ambiguity and the explicit statement of all necessary distinctions. Thisis-why_legal_textswhenread_out_of theircontext, ! anti for-ridicule, GIEIED ‘provision for detail and clarity characterizes the specialist jargons of medicine and of the sciences in general and also of philosophy. Indeed,The use of specialized types of langyage in fostering unity is also ‘evidenced in the stereotyped forms of vocabulary employed in almost all sports and games. The efficacy of religious worship and of prayers is frequently associated with the strict maintenance of correct forms of wSome specialized languages were developed to keep the outsider at bay. In other circumstances, languages have been deliberately created s. This happens when people speaking two different languages have to work together, usually in some form of trade relation or administrative routine. In such situations the so-called Pidgins arise, more or less purposely made up of vocabulary items from each language, with mutual abandonment of grammatical complexities that would cause confusion to either party.Sometimes, as the result of relatively permanent settlement and the intermixture of two speech communities, a pidgin becomes the first language of later generations, ultimately displacing both the original languages. First languages arising in this way from artificially created /pidgins are called Creoles) Notable among creoles is Haitian Creole, which grew primarily from the interactions between French colonists and enslaved Africans on Haiti’s plantations. !t-is-one-of Haiti's-officialCreoles differ from pidgins in that, as first languages, they are subject to the natural processes of change like any other language, and, despite the deliberately simplified form of the original pidgin, creoles develop their own complexities in the course of generations. This—occurswhereby a pidgin becomes a creole and of the relationship between ‘ereoles and a country’s standard language is carried on within ”Signed languages and gesture languages have the same linguistic components as spoken languages. Although they do not involve speech sounds, they have their own grammar, syntax, and morphology. Sign language is/most often Used in’deaf/ommunities, although it is also sometimes used by hearing people when they are unable to ‘communicate verbally. Although-some_signtanguages-are related toParalinguistics When individuals speak, they do not normally confine themselves to the mere emission of speech sounds. Because speaking usually involves at least two parties in sight of each other, a great deal of meaning is conveyed by facial expression and movements and postures of the whole body but especially of the hands; these are collectively known as gestures. The contribution of bodily gestures to the total meaning of a conversation is in part culturally determined and differs in different communities. Just how important these Visual symbols are may be seenwhen one considers how much léss effective phone conversation is as compared with conversation face to face. Again,the-part-played—inJust as there are (Baraliniguisticiactivities such as facial expressions and bodily gestures integrated with and assisting the communicative function of spoken language, so there are vocally produced noises that cannot be regarded as part of any language, though they help in ‘communication and in the expression of feeling. These include and conventional expressions of disgust, triumph, and so on, traditionally (spelled ugh!) ha hal, and’so on, in English. These sorts of nonlexical expressions are much more similar in form and meaning throughout ~ humankind as a whole, in contrast to the great diversity of languages.Symbolic and computer language A language is a symbol system. It may be regarded, because of its infinite flexibility and productivity, as the symbol system par excellence. But there are other symbol systems recognized and institutionalized in the different cultures of humankind, Examples of these exist on Maps) ‘and blueprints and in the conventions of representational aft (e.g., the ‘Bolden halos around the heads of saints in religious paintings). Other symbol systems are (musical notation and dance notation, whereintypes-of feeling,-one frequently reads of the “language, of music” or ‘even of “the grammar of music.” The-termsanguage- and grammararedevelopment of [Alimansmachine language is seen in computer programming languages, which provide the means whereby sets ofdevelopment of human-machine language is seen in (Bfoafamming Tanauages] which provide the means whereby sets of 7