definition of language

definition of language

Language is a unique behaviour of human being. Only a human being can communicate ideas, feelings, desire, and emotions through language. However, language is not a simple behaviour; rather it is a complex behaviour; as a human being uses sound or voice, facial expressions, physical organs, written signs and symbols to communicate. The combination of all these behaviour is language. Itis not easy to understand the language by this comment, because all these means cannot be enough for a successful communication always. Many words may not be enough to express the real message, where single word is enough to communicate the whole matter. Various philosophers, psychiatrists, and linguistics are involved to study the nature of language and many of them have tried to define language according to their observations.

To reach to an acceptable definition of language, we should go through different definitions of language given by different studies done by various specialists. The earliest definition as we have found is the definition of Aristotle. According to Aristotle, language is the combination of articulated voice or speech. It is produced by human beings to exchange any experiences, ideas and emotions.

There are many more definitions of language given by different writers. Some of the definitions are presented here chronologically.

―Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.‖ (Edward Sapir 1921)

According to Leonard Bloomfield (1933) language is the totality of utterances used in a speech community.

"A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates." (Bloch and Trager, 1942)

―From now on I will consider a language to be a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements." (Noam Chomsky, 1957)

"Language is behaviour which utilizes body parts: the vocal apparatus and the auditory system for oral language; the brachial apparatus and the visual system for sign language. . . . Such body parts are controlled by none other than the brain for their functions." (Fred C.C. Peng, 2005)

"We can define language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences." (Bruce Goldstein, 2008)

"A language consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages."(Wyane Weiten 2007)

"We can define language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences." (E. Bruce Goldstein 2008)

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, communicate.

The definitions given above highlight some common points about language. Language is the medium of communication, combination of sounds and symbols, an arbitrary set of words and sentences, oral and written, a system used by a particular speech community of the human being, controlled by natural brain functions. Therefore, Language is an arbitrary system of articulated sounds and symbols naturally generated by human beings, out of complex brain function, to communicate with each other either orally or written form in the real life situations.

Characteristics of language
Language is one of the different human behaviour. This is not like the animal communication. It is not making some sounds only. It has several features. Studying the features linguistics determined some characteristics or properties of language. These characteristics or properties separate the human communication from that of animals. The properties are universal for the human being. Charles. F. Hockett (1960), a linguistic anthropologist determined a number of characteristics which are called by him as the universal design features of language. According to Hockett there are 15 features possessed by any basic human language. Hockett differed with Chomsky, another linguistic theorist, that language is a biological quality innately learned. To him language is also a social behavioural phenomenon.

If we examine the definitions mentioned above we will find language possesses numbers of  haracteristics. Language is arbitrary, productive, creative, symbolic, systematic, vocal, social, non-instinctive and conventional which are described below

Language is arbitrary
Language is arbitrary because there is no reason behind the use of any word to mean anything or any other language usage e.g. sentence, structure, pronunciation, spelling, etc. river in English, ‗nodi‘ in Bangla, ‗nadi‘ in Hindi, ‗rivier‘ in French. All these words mean the same thing but name, spelling or pronunciation is different, why? There is no reasonable answer; it is only for the arbitrary nature of language. Although the source of the language is same later it changes into different ways arbitrarily. Therefore, there are so many languages in the world.

Language is productive
Language has productivity and creativity. The structural elements of human language can produce new utterances through different combinations. These utterances are not familiar to the language users. Yet, they can understand and communicate between themselves. Language proceeds and changes its way like a river. It also follows the necessity of the human groups.

Language is symbolic
Language is the combination of some sounds and symbols. These sounds and symbols represent some objects, events or meanings. These are selected arbitrarily and accepted conventionally. Different human groups have selected the sounds and symbols in their language without any specific causes. But these sounds and symbols mean sense when they are used with correct interpretations. The language is the correct interpretations of the sounds and symbols.

Language is systematic
The sounds and symbols in language are systematic. They are arranged in a system. There is phonological system which is related with phoneme, the unit of sound, and pronunciation. There is grammatical system related with vocabulary and sentence, their constructions and uses.

Language is vocal
Language is primarily vocal. Human being produces sounds through physiological articulatory mechanism. Human beings first utter vocal sounds. Writing comes later, writing or letters are the graphic a representation of the sounds of the language. Speaking is the primary skill and writing is the secondary skill of the language learning.

Language is social
Language is a social behaviour. This is a set of conventional communicative signals used by the human beings to communicate in the real life situation. This is the behaviour of the particular society. To learn or to be fluent in any language we need the social support. The human being can speak the language of the society where he/she lives. The child who grew up in the place alienated from the human society, he/she cannot talk in human language. He/she cannot communicate through language. Without having the opportunity of interactions one cannot be able to learn language. Language is a social tradition. Language belongs to the society which is the means of nurturing the culture of a particular society.

Language is non-instinctive and conventional
Language is not an immediate event. It is not a matter of creation following certain formula. Language is a continuous process of evolution and convention. It is transmitted from generation to generation. Language can change; language can die like other human institutions. If any language is not used currently by the particular group of people then it will die gradually. Languages grow in the human communities and expand by their everyday uses. By these features language is therefore a convention in a particular human society. Language is non-instinctive as it is acquired by human beings. Language is not an inherited ability. One has to acquire it through his/her innate ability. Animals cannot communicate among them through language. They do not have that ability to acquire language, they are guided by instinct. A human child has the ability by which he/she can acquire any language; he/she only needs favourable environment and efforts. That‘s why language is noninstinctive.

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