THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

Sun, 16 Aug 2020 09:57:00 +0000

JOHN RODOLF N. MORTEGA, MAEd

Educator/Writer

In this lesson we will be discussing the important components of language, the terminologies within the context such as: speech community, language acquisition, mother tongue, first language and second language, language learning, language contact, and language change.

INPUT 1: THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

The creation of human life is the creation of a wonderful and dynamic human capacity—Language. Even animals have the capacity to communicate. Whales sing, wolves howl, dogs bark, and bird chirps. The sounds these creatures produce often reflect the state of their emotions. It has been true that animal can communicate in other way around, unlike humans they can concretely express verbally or non-verbally their sentiments.

What is language? It can be a language when there is a system of rules (grammar) system of sound (phonology) and a vocabulary (lexicon). What are the meanings for language? Based on linguistics, language is a means of communication consisted of sounds, words, symbols, and grammar used by the people in a particular country, region, or group. For Chomsky (1957) Language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length, and constructed out of a finite set of elements. Moreover, a language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates (B. Bloch and G. Trager, 1942). These are components to make a language and be a language. Animals cannot supersede humans on its ability of survival and communication. Therefore, humans are unique creature because of their capacity far beyond of other creations on earth.

When people belong to the same place or community, they mutually understand each term of their language and culture since they belong to the same speech community. A speech community is a group of speakers who share a language and patterns of language use. Members of the community speak more often with each other than they do with members outside the community. This pattern of behavior is known as communicative isolation. Communicative isolation is increased by social, cultural, economic, and geographical factors. Consequently, over time the speech community develops characteristics of language and language use that are different from those of another community.

While growing up, there’s a tremendous acquisition of certain language system through education and personal encounters in everyday living, that is the process of language acquisition and the native language learned is called mother tongue or the first language. As time passes by people encounter languages that are needed for various reasons. These languages may be referred to as second languages these should be learned and utilized since it is the acceptable language in a certain speech community. Language could bring confusion if a certain language system is not properly utilized by the speaker. Indeed, a call for practice to address the difficulty faced by many. Certainly, people learn these languages by studying formally in school or informally on their own. This is a process of language learning.

When you finish your degree or talk with a friend with different nationality, French in particular, at first you will encounter confusion, shyness, language difficulty since it is not your native language, you might not be able to connect with him/her. But since you have a friend who can understand French you will be able to understand his ideas by the help of your friend, that happening is called language contact, and the language change is the process by which a certain confusion/difficulty be addressed because of the frequent encounters and learning via language contact.

Sources:

Madrunio, Marilu R. and Isabel P. Martin (2018). Purposive Communication Using English in Multilingual Contexts. Quezon City: C&E Publising, Inc

https://www.communicationtheory.org/

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-communication-1689877

https://images. app.goo.gl/1Uj4BqBS2xsWZNQa9

https://www.google.com/search?q=language&sxsrf=ALeKk01MkExQzqN9isouUVv8ZLCRNSSV7g:1597572415209&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiU076CvZ_rAhXB3mEKHbFcCEoQ_AUoAXoECBoQAw&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=7fsgcgdlHf_WEM

We have a new website

Sun, 16 Aug 2020 09:42:00 +0000

English Education - News

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

We have a new website