THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE
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