What is Language? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Human language is basically the rules of language and other guidelines that are essential in aiding man in making pronouncements and sounds that can be conveyed and understood by the people intended to. In the world today there are over five thousand languages that are in operation. Mandarin has the highest number of people using it followed by English, Spanish, and Arabic. Dialect is basically what makes a man be a man. Language has some unique features that are associated with it. These unique features are the ones which set the boundary between animal sounds and human language. It's important to note that some of the characteristics of language can be observed in both humans and animals. Firstly language is random. This means that there is no link between the idioms of a speech and their definitions or the message they convey. It's important to know that if the tongue was not random the universe will have only one dialect. Secondly, language is communal. Dialect is basically a set of tools used by people for interaction in a society. Speech is a property of a societal group having a unique set of rules which allows individuals to communicate with each other, interact with each other and exist as a communal institution.

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Thirdly language is representative. Language is made up of several sound characters and their graph logical equivalents that are used to indicate some objects, events or meaning. These characters are randomly chosen and traditionally accepted and used. The words in a dialect are not mere figures but characters with a meaning. Another characteristic of language is that it is systematic. The characters of the language are organized in a certain manner with a particular meaning. The different languages in the world that are in existence today all have certain systematic arrangements. For example, in the rules of language, there are morphological and syntax systems under which there is there are 2 sub-systems like those of mood and plural. Another key attribute of language is that it's vocal. In the earlier days, it was only vocal utterances but when human beings began to write it changed. The important thing to note is that primarily vocal is still key to dialect.

Dialect is non-intuitive because there is no speech that has ever been created by humans using a set of formulas they have agreed upon. Language is basically the result of the evolution process of man. Dialect can be likened to human beings since they can continue to grow or perish. It is non-intuitive because language is not inherited rather human beings acquire it. The last important characteristic of language is that it is high yielding and promotes creativity. It is rich in creativity and fertility in the sense that it's organizational can be intertwined to generate new utterances which have not been existence before. Dialect undergoes alterations based on societal needs.

Speech is significant because it's the main way in which man converse and socializes with one another. In today's world language is an important tool for public speaking. Without language, it would be impossible to create new relationships in the modern society. For a very long time, the view of language as portrayed in psychology was that where it originated from and its main objective was based on it being a tool of social control, which is man's tool of communication. People also perceived that human beings language as a development in comparison to how animals communicate with each other. This means that human's language has gone through an evolution and that there was one time we did not communicate using language. Not long ago a new perspective about language has come to the front. Dialect is now seen as a vital ingredient for the development of thoughts, the organization and lexis of certain speech types are taken into account of being significant in designing the thinking of a group.

Ferdinand de Saussure's book contains an introduction to the yesteryears of linguistics, an appendix, and 5 main parts. He called the study of languages as linguistics. He was of the opinion that linguistics is the study of the history of languages and the study of the traditional influences surrounding a language. There is a contrast between the dialect and the action of speaking. Talking is an act that is personal in nature and the dialect is basically a communal dimension of the tongue. Dialect is an organization of signs that progressed from the action of the tongue. Dialect creates a relationship between the sound and the thought meaning speech cannot be expressed without thought. Saussure stated that dialect is a border area between reasoning and sound where they both intertwine to give out communication.

Spoken word subsists in the transmission of ideas by the use of thoughts from the narrator to the audience. Dialect is the result of the narrator's transmission of signs to the audience, he says that the study of languages manifestation is a merger of an idea and thought. It's important to note that both their combination is very random. A manifestation can be amended by an adjustment in the relationship between the signifier and signified. Saussure was of the view that these adjustments in linguistic sign emanate from adjustments in the communal activity of the tongue. He was of the opinion that these signs are linear and that they are representative of a span in one dimension.

Saussure was also of the view that written dialect came about as a gateway to expressing spoken dialect. Basically, a writing is a visual of a vocal sign. He stated that dialect is an organized system of random signs. Saussure distinguished between static dialects and evolutionary dialects that the latter is the education of the progress of language while static linguistic is the education of a dialect at a certain period (Ondrejovic, 2013). According to Saussure evolutionary change comes from the adjustment in the communal activity speech. Adjustments take place in personal patterns of talking before it becomes a language. Speaking is an action that constitutes oral and audible transmission between people. Dialect is the set of norms y which people are able to relate with each other. Saussure said that nothing can enter scribed dialect without first having tested the spoken language waters.

Lastly assure viewed the structure of language as the one that is value based. Language according to him could be explained in form of organized units. Basically, the signifier is the value of a word and concept is the signified (Sigmund, 2012). His last stance was that the meaning of a sign is created from the relationship with each other. As per Freud, the mind can change perceptual data into the language. This is basically how a man can change his own beliefs by reasoning about them in the manifestation of words.

Sigmund Freud divided the brain into specific parts each with different cognitive work. Sigmund disagreed with the idea that chronic phenomena are as a result of mental dysfunctions (Sigmund, 2012). Freud has given a differentiation name presentation psychological image of the name and the object presentations. Name presentation constitutes the link of a responsive idea to an oral stimulus is linked with ancillary processes and are not linked with the reality. The impact of the external environment on the ego is in the psychological processes and name presentations become gradually interlinked as the ego adjusts as a result of changes in the environment

References

Hammer, K. (2017). They speak what language to whom? Language & Communication, 56, 42-54. Doi: 10.1016/j.langcom.2017.04.004

Ondrejovic, S. (2013). Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1931). Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedny Casopis, 64(2). Doi: 10.2478/jazcas-2013-0009

Sigmund, F. (2012). Civilization and Its Discontents. London: Penguin.