what is language?

What is Language

Introduction

The question above at first glance seemed easy to answer especially that we all have preconceived idea of what really language is . Language is talking . Noam Chomsky contends that more than any other characteristics the possession of language distinguishes humans from animals (Chomsky He argued that to understand humanity , one must understand the nature of language that makes us human . Language is not merely the ability to talk , rather , it is the capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or interpret the sounds

produced by others (Chomsky ,

.2 . Thus , if one do not know the language , the words of that language will be mostly inconceivable . Language is more than speech as deaf people can produce languages without words just as normal persons generate and understand verbal languages . Language is what makes people understands each other , it is makes nations to unite for a common goals and it is the very foundation of progress and achievements . Thus understanding language is an essential task that every one must undertake . The world has perhaps thousands of different language that for most of us we can only speak five or the most is ten of these languages . Our limited knowledge of such languages is hindering us to achieve our goals to live in peace , unity , and , in cooperation with each other

Linguistic study therefore is an essential step towards this purpose of achieving , unity , cooperation , and mutual understanding with each other

Knowing what is Language

Knowing a language involves knowing what sounds are in that language . It means that when one is not an English speaker he or she cannot substitute the pronunciation of a certain word to make it appear the word is pronounced in English . Taking for example the case presented by Chomsky , he noted that French people often pronounced the English word this and that as if they were spelled as Zis ' and Zat ' knowing the sound system of the language therefore includes more than just the record of sounds . It involves knowing which sounds may start a word , end a word , and follow each other

According to Chomsky , knowing the sounds and the patterns of sounds amount to only one part of our linguistic knowledge . While it may be true that certain sequence of sounds denote certain concepts or meanings , if this is the case , knowing a language is not an easy task One has to learn the sequences of sound if he or she has to learn language . That is , the words in that language which is also the sound sequences that are related to particular meanings . Thus , if one do not know a language , he or she cannot understand the meaning of the words or sentences of that language , because the relationship between speech and sounds is very subjective or an arbitrary one . Acquiring a language therefore needs one to identify that the sounds represented by the letters signify the concept

Sign Languages

The relationship between form (sound ) and...